*- 




«**; 



. f #9 



* m * 



*te~ 



v**|. 



AN INQUIRY 



CONCERNING 



THE AUTHOR 



OF 



Cjje letters? of Junius, 



WITH REFERENCE TO THE 



MEMOIRS 



BY A 



CELEBRATED LITERARY AND POLITICAL 
CHARACTER. 



j$y /£vv/u* i £<' >>>k«jA^* 



« >j ever did the promises or offers of private emolument induce me td quit 
my independence, or vary in the least from my former professions, which always 
were, and remain still, founded on the principles of universal liberty;— principles, 
to which I have always adhered, by which I still abide, and which I will endeavour 
lt> bear down with me to the grave." - ~ -Clover, to the Livery of Lender;, 



LONDON, 

PRINTED BY T. BENS LEY, 
Bolt Court, Fleet Street, 

FOR JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, 



MDGCCXIV, 






/ 



ADVERTISEMENT. 

" A new candidate has been started for 
the credit of Junius s Letters. The Editor of 
" The Memoirs of a celebrated Literary and 
Political Character/' thinks that he has at 
length discovered this important writer, and he 
takes infinite pains, but we think without the 
least chance of success, to persuade his readers 
to agree with him. The Literary Character 
whose Memoirs he has given us, is evidently 
the late Leonipas Glover — but there is 
not a feature of Junius in his style or man- 
ner. The Memoir, however is curious, &c/' 

This is the only criticism which has yet 
appeared of these interesting Memoirs. The 
author of this pamphlet having considered 
the subject with some attention as to the 
features of resemblance between the senti- 
ments contained in those Memoirs, and the 



letters of Junius, feels himself disposed to 
entertain a different opinion; and that he 
may meet this criticism on its own basis, he 
adopts Leonidas Glover as the author of the 
Memoir, which in his apprehension strengthens 
the hypothesis that Glover and Junius were 
the same. 



* # * The Edition of Junius' Letters uniformly quoted 
and referred to, is, the 8vo. in 3 Vols, of 1812. 



AN INQUIRY, 



Though liberty may err through jealous care, 
That jealous care far oft'ner saves a state, 
Than injures private worth. 

Glover's Athenaid, Book 2. 

The discovery of the author of the letters of 
Junius has been long a desideratum in literature. 
Not fewer than twenty persons have been named 
who are supposed to have had pretensions to that 
claim; but some fatal objection, in every instance, 
has hitherto disappointed the most promising 
expectations. Mr. Mason Good, the editor of the 
last edition of Junius, has, in his preliminary essay, 
given this summary of the character, and circum- 
stances essentially requisite to be combined in 
whomsoever may be proposed as the author of 
those celebrated letters — 

" That it would seem to follow unquestionably, 
that the author of the letters of Junius was an 
Englishman of highly cultivated education, deeply 
versed in the language, the laws, the constitution, 
and history of his native country: that he was a man 
of easy if not of affluent circumstances, of unsul- 
lied honour and generosity, who had it equally in 
his heart and in his power- to contribute to the 

B 



2 

necessities of other persons, and especially of those 
who were exposed to troubles of any kind on his 
OM'n account : that he was in habits of confiden- 
tial intercourse, if not with different members of 
the cabinet, with politicians who were most inti- 
mately familiar with the court, and entrusted with 
all its secrets: yet he had attained an age which 
would allow him, without vanity, to boast of an 
ample knowledge and experience of the world : 
that during the years 1767, 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 
and part of 1772, he resided almost constantly in 
London or its vicinity, devoting a very large por- 
tion of his time to political concerns, and publish- 
ing his political lucubrations, under different sig- 
natures, in the Public Advertiser; that in his 
natural temper, he was quick, irritable, and impe- 
tuous; subject to political prejudices and strong 
personal animosities ; but possessed of a high in- 
dependent spirit; honestly attached to the princi- 
ples of the constitution, and fearless and indefa- 
tigable in maintaining them ; that he was strict in 
his moral conduct, and in his attention to public 
decorum; and, though acquainted with English 
judicature, not a lawyer by profession. 

" What other characteristics he may have pos- 
sessed we know not ; but these are sufficient, and 
the claimant who cannot produce them conjointly, 
is in vain brought forwards as the author of the 
letters of Junius."* 

• Vol. i. p. *9Jr. 



s 

In addition to the remarks of Mr. Mason Good 
upon those points which he considers necessary 
to be previously established, I must also add these 
from my perusal of the printed letters, and an in- 
spection of the MSS. which I have been permitted 
to see through Mr. Woodfall's kindness — 

It appears by numerous printed letters that 
Junius was intimately acquainted with the con- 
cerns of the city, with trade, and the language 
of stock-jobbers; and tha the was probably him- 
self a citizen, see letter, page 4. " The greatest 
part of my property having been invested in the 
funds, I could not help paying some attention to ru- 
mours or events, by which my fortune may be 
affected : yet 1 never lay in wait to take advan- 
tage of a sudden fluctuation, much less would I 
make myself a bubble to bulls and bears, or a 
dupe to the pernicious arts practised in the al- 
ley." 3 Again, " Sir, the Secretary at War refers me 
to you for an account of what was done — Done, Sir, 
closed at three-eights." b By his letters to Wilkes 
he was as anxious that Sawbridge should be the 
first magistrate in the city, as that the Duke of 
Grafton should be the lowest man in the state; 
and he shews the same contempt for Bridgen c 

a Junius, vol. iii. p. 91. b Vol. iii. p. 425. 

c If Alderman Bridgen were chosen Lord Mayor, Junius says, 

" a magistrate would be forced upon the citizens, upon whose 

odious and contemptible character Crosby founds his only hopes of 

success." — Junius, vol. i, p. *270. And again, " it may suit such 

B 2 



as for Bradshaw. d In Letter 70, he considers 
himself as a citizen:— " I think it therefore ab- 
solutely necessary for us to rouse in defence of 
the honour of the city, and demonstrate to the 
ministry, by the spirit and vigour of our proceed- 
ings, that we are not what they are pleased to re- 
present us, the scum of the earth and the vilest and 
basest of mankind." 6 Again, " If I saw any prospect 

a fellow as Bridgen to shut up the Mansion-house," p. *306.— 
Junius was so mortified when Alderman Nash was elected Lord 
Mayor, that m a letter to Wilkes he says, * What an abandoned, 
prostituted idiot is your Lord Mayor ! the shameful mismanage- 
ment which brought him into office, gave me the first, and an 
unconquerable disgust." 

d Secretary to the Duke of Grafton. See Junius, vol. i. p. 157. 
Sec. &c. 

e As this letter is interesting, to shew the partiality of Junius 
to the city, it is here printed at full length. 

To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. 

sir, 10 March, 1//0. 

No man is more warmly attached to the best of princes than 
I am. I reverence his personal virtues, as much as I respect hi* 
understanding, and am happy to find myself under the govern- 
ment of a prince, whose temper and abilities do equal honour to 
his character. At the same time, I confess, I did not hear with- 
out astonishment of the answer which some evil-minded coun- 
sellors advised him to return to the sheriffs of the city of London. 
For a king of Great Britain to take time to consider, whether he 
will not receive a petition from his subjects, seems to me to amount 
to this, that he will take time to consider whether he will not ad- 
here to the fourth article of the Declaration of Rights. One would 
think that this could never have been a question in the mind of so.. 



of uniting the city once more, I would readily 
continue to labour in the vineyard. Whenever 
Mr. Wilkes can tell me that such a union is in 
prospect he shall hear of me." 1 Junius also wrote 
a letter addressed to the Livery of London, ex- 
gracious a prince, if there was not some very dangerous advice 
given in the closet. I now hear that it has been signified to thff 
sheriffs, that his Majesty cannot receive the petition, until he is 
informed of the nature of the assembly, in which it- was com- 
posed. A king indeed is not obliged to understand the political 
forms and constitution of every corporation in his kingdom; but his 
ministers must be uncommonly ignorant who could hot save him 
the embarrassment of asking such a question concerning the first 
body corporate in the world. The sheriffs, I presume, will hardly 
venture to satisfy so unusual an inquiry, upon their own bare au- 
thority. They will naturally move the Lord Mayor to summon 
another Common Hall, to answer for themselves ; and then, I 
doubt not, the corporation of the city of London will fully explain, 
to those whom it may concern, who they arc, and ivhat is the na- 
ture of their assembly. After all, Sir, I do not apprehend that the 
propriety ofthe king's receiving a petition from any of his subjects 
depends in the least upon their quality or situation. He is bound 
by the Declaration and subsequent Bill of Rights to receive all pe- 
titions from his subjects. What notice or answer the contents of 
them may deserve, must be considered afterwards. To refuse the 
petition itself is against law. I am persuaded, however, thatno- 
thing can be further from the intention of our gracious sovereign, 
than to offer a gross affront to the whole city of London. It is 
evident that the ministry either mean to gain time- for carrying 
some poor counter-measure, by means % of the wretched dependants 
of the court, or to intimidate the city magistrates, and deter theni 
from dohig their duty. I think it therefore absolutely necessary 
for us to rouse in defence of the honour of the city, and demon- 
* Vol. i. p. *253. 



pressly to influence them in the choice of their 
Lord Mayor, Letter LXXVIIL 

Junius also valued himself on his knowledge 
of finance.— Letter XXXIX. a 

By the MSS. and other documents in Mr. 
Woodfall's possession. Junius was also, most pro- 
bably, an author of other works, the printing of 
which he personally superintended; for his cor- 
rections of the press shew that he was ac- 
quainted with the printer's private marks and 
the peculiar manner of writing them : and in his 
confidential notes, which have been published, he 
uses the language of a man conversant with 
printers : — " I sent you three sheets of copy last 
night Let me know about what time you want 
more copy," &c. 

He could also write poetry apparently with fa* 
cility, as appears by a poem among his MSS. con- 

strate to the ministry, by the spirit and vigour of our proceedings, 
that we are not, what they are pleased to represent us, the scum 
of the earth, and the vilest and basest of mankind. 

MODERATUS.* 

* This Letter, in the genuine edition, is signed Philo- Junius, 
but, when it originally appeared in the Public Advertisei, it bad 
the signature of Moderatus. 

Here it is worthy of observation, that when Junius wrote under 
the character of Moderatus, he speaks of himself as a citizen, 
but eighteen months after, when he wrote a paper expressly to de- 
prive Alderman Nash of the honours of the Mayoralty, under the 
signature of Junius, he modestly calls himself a Stranger. See 
Utter LVIIJ. Vol. II. p. 338. 

a See Addenda. 



sisting of six stanzas of four lines each, evidently 
written for Mr. Woodfall's personal gratification ; 
as, from internal evidence, the poem could never 
have been intended for publication. This satiri- 
cal composition begins, 

HARRY AND NAN. a 

An Elegy in the manner of Tilullus. 

" Can Apollo resist, or a Poet refuse, 

When Harry and Nancy solicit the Muse ? 

A statesman who makes a whole Nation his care, 

And a nymph, who is almost as chaste as she's fair." 

It may also be remarked, that the ingenious 
device of having a subordinate character, as Philo 
Junius, to support the hero, savours of a drama- 
tic feeling ; b and his letters, written to Lord Bar- 
rington, have characters and scenes. 

From reading the private notes of Junius to 
Mr. Woodfall, it appears that the author had a 
personal regard for him, and that he knew him 
thoroughly. Of the sixty-three notes, only four 
conclude with words of ceremony. No. 3, which 
asks Mr. Woodfall candidly to tell him if he knew 
or suspected who he was, concludes, I am, Sir, 
your most obedient and most humble servant ; No. 6. 
concludes, your friend, C. ; No. 8. your friend and 
servant ; and No. 34. / am very truly your friend. 

a Duke of Grafton and Nancy Parsons. 
b As to Junius, I must wait for fresh matter, as this is a cha- 
racter which must be kept up with credit. Vol. i. p. *1Q8. 



His advice is marked by an affectionate regard 
towards him. " Between ourselves, let me recom- 
mend it to you to be much upon your guard with 
patriots."* And again, u For my own part, I can 
truly assure you that nothing could affect me 
more than to have drawn you into a personal 
danger, because it admits of no recompence." b 

The poetical composition just noticed which 
he sent to Mr. Woodfall, as a private sally of 
his imagination, is conclusive that he did not 
regard the printer of the Public Advertiser as a 
mere printer and publisher: and when he asked 
him if he knew or could guess who Junius might 
be, it would seem that in his mind there were some 
grounds for his inquiry and suspicion. 

In letter No. lp, when the prosecution of Mr. 
Woodfall was pending for publishing the letter to 
the king, Junius writes to him, — " If your affair 
should come to a trial, and you should be found 
guilty, you will let me know what expence falls 
particularly on yourself, for I understand you are 
engaged with other proprietors. Some way or 
other you shall be reimbursed." This last para- 
graph sufficiently shews that the author had a 
peculiar regard for Mr. Woodfall; as his coadju- 
tors, who were embarked in the same hazard on 
the common account, ought, if he had had no par- 

• Private letter to Mr. Woodfall, No. 44. 
b Private letter, No, 43, 



tiality for Mr. Woodfall, to have been equally 
protected and indemnified. 

Mr. Woodfall, so far as concerned the letters 
of Junius, was as secret as the author himself, 
and in no instance ever betrayed the slightest de- 
sire to penetrate into the mystery; but, on the 
contrary, with the most inflexible reserve kept 
his suspicions and conjectures to himself, what- 
ever they may have been, and very rarely shewed 
a specimen of the hand-writing of the letters in 
his possession, even to his most intimate friends. 
This reserved and cautious disposition could not 
be otherwise than well known to Junius, and from 
what I have already stated, it is evident that there 
was not only a reciprocal confidence between 
them, but on the part of Junius a particular re- 
gard for Mr. Woodfall. This confidence was so 
well established that at times Junius seems to 
have been disposed to reveal himself to him : — 
" Act honourably by me, and at a proper time you 
shall know me." a And again, " I doubt whether 
I shall ever have the pleasure of knowing you ; 
but, if things take the turn I expect, you shall 
know me by my works." b And in his private 
letter No. 6, I cannot help suspecting but that 
that part of it which has been supposed to be 
written in a negligent hand was so written by 
design. 

a Private letter, N e "41. b Lett. N° 17. 



10 



a S1R> Sunday; Aug. 6, 1769. 

" The spirit of your letter convinces me that 
you are a much better writer than most of the 
people whose works you publish. Whether you 
have guessed well or ill must be left to our future 
acquaintance. For the matter of assistance, be 
assured, that if a question should arise upon any 
writings of mine, you shall not want it. Yet you 
see how things go, and I fear my assistance would 
not avail you much. For the other points of print- 
ing, &c. it does not depend on us at present. My 
own works you shall constantly have, and in point 
of money, be assured you never shall suffer. I wish 
the inclosed to be announced to-morrow conspi- 
cuously for Tuesday. I am not capable of writ- 
ing any thing more finished. 

" Your friend. 

" C." 

In this letter the words printed in Italics are 
in a natural hand, bearing no resemblance to the 
former or the latter part of the same letter, which 
is written in his accustomed disguised, formal, 
upright Italian hand; and this is the only in- 
stance throughout the whole of his letters where 
there is any variation in the principle of the writ- 
ten character. And here Junius is assuring Mr. 
Woodfall that he will indemnify him as to any 
expense that may be incurred in consequence of 
publishing his writings : that is the main object 



11 

of the letter, and as the essential words only are 
written in a natural character, I cannot help 
being of opinion that they were so written, under 
the confidence that appears to have been esta- 
blished between them, to give additional force 
and veracity to his declaration. 

Junius was attached to religion, but he has no 
where declared that he was of the established 
church, though Mr. Mason Good has said in his 
Preliminary Essay, by mistake, that he was an 
avowed member of it. a " He was a true and 
hearty Christian in substance not in ceremony ; 
though possibly he may not agree with my Rev. 
Lords the Bishops or with the head of the church, 
that prayers are morality, and that kneeling is 
religion." b 

a Vol. ;. p. *98. 

b The whole of this letter, in defence of the religious prin- 
ciples of Junius, is sophistically composed, and appears rather to 
evade the question of his profession of faith than to explain it. 

To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. 
sir, 26 Jug. 1771. 

The enemies of the people, having now nothing better to ob- 
ject to my friend Junius, are at last obliged to quit his politics and 
to rail at him for crimes he is not guilty of. His vanity and im- 
piety are now the perpetual topics of their abuse. I do not mean 
to lessen the force of such charges, (supposing they were true,) 
but to shew that they are not founded. If I admitted the pre- 
mises, I should readily agree in all the consequences drawn from 
them. Vanity indeed is a venial error, for it usually carries its 
own punishment with it 3 — but if I thought Junius capable of utter- 



12 

Agreeably to this view of the Author of the let- 
ters of Junius no one has yet been named. In 

ing a disrespectful word of the religion of his country, I should be 
the first to renounce and give him up to public contempt and 
indignation. As a man, I am satisfied that he is a Christian upon 
the most sincere conviction. As a writer he would be grossly in- 
consistent with his political principles, if he dared to attack a re- 
ligion established by those laws, which it seems to be the purpose 
©f his life to defend. Now for the proofs. — Junius is accused of an 
impious allusion to the holy sacrament, where he says that, if Lord 
Weymouth be denied the cup t there will be no keeping him within 
the pale of the ministry. Now, Sir, I affirm that this passage re- 
fers entirely to a ceremonial in the Roman catholic church, which 
denies the cup to the laity. It has no manner of relation to the 
Protestant creed, and is in this country as fair an object of ridicule 
as transubstantiation, or any other part of Lord Peters history in 
the Tale of a Tub. 

But Junius is charged with equal vanity and impiety, in com- 
paring his writings to the holy scripture. — The formal protest he 
makes against any such comparison, avails him nothing. It becomes 
necessary then to shew that the charge destroys itself. — If he be 
vain, he cannot be impious. A vain man does not usually compare 
himself to an object, which it is his design to undervalue. On the 
other hand, if he be impious, he cannot be vain. For his impiety, 
if any, must consist in his endeavouring to degrade the holy scrip- 
tures by a comparison with his own contemptible writings. This 
would be folly indeed of the grossest nature, but where lies the 
vanity? — I shall now be told, — " Sir, what you say is plausible 
enough, but still you must allow that it is shamefully impudent in 
Junius to tell us that his works will live as long as the Bible.*' My 
answer is. Agreed : but first prove that he has said so. Look at 
his words, and you will find that the utmost he expects is, that the 
Bible and Junius will survive the commentaries of the Jesuits, 
which may prove true in a fortnight. The most malignant sagacity 
cannot shew that his works are, in his opinion , to live as long as the 



13 

Glover, the author of Leonidas, are united all the 
necessary qualities of such a writer; and, if I fail to 
substantiate my opinions on this interesting sub- 
ject, I cannot fail to convict the politicians of his 
time of a total want of perspicacity in overlooking 
51 man who possessed more requisites than any in- 
dividual to whom those letters have been hitherto 
attributed 

Mr. Glover was an ardent politician in the old 
Whig interest. As early as the year 1739 he made 
a conspicuous figure in the city, and by his in* 
fluence and activity was the means of setting aside 
Sir George Champion's election to the mayoralty, 
as, in his place as Member of Parliament, he 
voted with the court party in the business of the 
Spanish Convention, contrary to what Mr. Glover 
considered to be the true interest of the City of 
London. 

Bible. — Suppose I were to foretel that Jack and Tom would sur- 
vive Harry, does it follow that Jack must live as long as Tom ? 
I would only illustrate my meaning and protest against the least 
idea of profaneness." 

Yet this is the way in which Junius is usually answered, ar- 
raigned, and convicted. These candid critics never remember any 
thing he says in honour of our holy religion; though it is true that 
one of his leading arguments is made to rest upon the internal evi~ 
dence which the purest of all religions carries with it. I quote his 
words, and conclude from them, that he is a true and hearty Chris- 
tian, in substance, not in ceremony j though possibly he may not 
agree with my Reverend Lords the Bishops, or with the Head of 
the Church, that prayers are morality t or that kneeling is re- 
%»«. PHILO JUNIUS. 



14 

His talents, his knowledge of political affairs, 
and his information concerning commerce, gave 
him so much distinction amongst the merchants of 
London, that he was appointed by them to con- 
duct their application to parliament in 1741 and 
1742, on the subject of the neglect of their trade. 
To his sole management was consigned their appli- 
cation to both Houses of Parliament against the 
Walpolean commissioners of the Admiralty ; and 
his exertions were crowned with complete success. 
At this time his character was so high in political 
estimation, that the Duchess of Marlborough, when 
she made her Will, left Mr. Glover, in a codicil, 
5001. to write the history of the Duke of Marlbo- 
rough's life : with this remark, " Mr. Glover I be- 
lieve is a very honest man, who wishes, as I 
do, all the good that can happen to preserve 
the liberties and laws of England." a This codicil is 
dated August 1.5, 1744, and Mr. Glover regretted 
that the capricious restrictions it contained com- 

a The manner in which this bequest is made, shews that the 
Duchess had a personal knowledge and confidence in Glover ; and 
this is more strongly marked by the manner she speaks of Mallet, 
who was also nominated in her Will to write the Life of Duke of 
Marlborough, for which appointment she gives this reason : " Mr. 
Mallet was recommended to me by the late Duke of Montrose, 
whom I admired extremely for his great steadiness and behaviour 
in all tilings that related to the preservation of our laws and the 
public good." 

Mr. Mallet had been a private tutor in the family of the Duke 
of Montrose, 



15 

pelled him to reject the undertaking : since, as he 
expresses himself, — " There, conduct, valour, and 
success abroad ; prudence, perseverance, learning 
and science, at home, would have shed some portion 
of their graces on their historian's page, and enli- 
vened his chearful labours; a mediocrity of talent 
would have felt an unwonted elevation in the bare 
attempt of transmitting so splendid a period to 
succeeding ages." 

He lived at this time in habits of intimacy 
with Lord Cobham, Pitt, afterwards Lord Chat- 
ham, George Grenville, Lyttelton, Dodington, 
Waller, and other eminent political characters who 
were in opposition to the court party, and his 
visits were frequent at Leicester House. 3 

Immediately on the death of the Prince of 
Wales, April 7, 1751, Dodington says, " Mr. 
Glover dined with me, and the Earl of Shaftsbury 
came in the afternoon, and we agreed to drive it 
to an issue with the Earls of Westmorland and 
Oxford, either to form a regular party imme- 
diately, or to give the point entirely up. If a 
party should be formed, then to fix the subscrip- 

a His poem of Leonidas, from its patriotic character, was a great 
favourite with the Prince of Wales. Dr. Warton informs us, 
e( that nothing else was read or talked of at Leicester House.' 

The Prince, as a mark of his attachment to Glover, and to his 
political principles, made him a present of a complete set of the 
Classics elegantly bound. Mr. Pveed says, that he also sent him 
5001. but this is a mistake - 7 Mr. Glover never received any money 
from the Prince. 



16 

tion for a paper by Mr. Ralph, to be supported by 
about twenty of us, at ten guineas each, and by 
what else we can get." b 

During the Duke of Newcastle's administra- 
tion Mr. Glover was valued by his party as a man 
of considerable political importance; and when 
Mr. Pitt first came into office, in 1756, he was con- 
suited, and on that occasion drew up these pre- 
liminary conditions. 

1. " Mr. Pitt should insist on a militia, and 
the dismission of the foreign troops, — on the 
strictest inquiry into past misconduct, — and make 
a reserve, absolutely not to involve the nation with 
the continent, in case he should at any time dis- 
approve of such a measure. 

2. He should insist on displacing all the effi- 
cient officers of the last administration, and all 
others of every kind who are obnoxious to the 
public. 

5. He must not give up one of these points 
to the King. In the present calamitous crisis, it 
is indispensably necessary, not only that the King 
should not be master; but that he should know 
and feel, he is not and ought not to be so. 

4. This conduct of Mr. Pitt will be universally 
applauded without doors: if the King will not ac- 
quiesce, Mr. Pitt will have done his duty, and 
will be justifiably disengaged. 

$. Calamitous events have set Mr. Pitt in 

b Dodington's Diary, p. 95. 



17 

his present high point of light. Fresh calamities 
will soon succeed, and raise him yet higher, and 
compel the King to these terms at last. 

rj. If it be alledged, that Mr. Pitt should pay 
some deference to the Houses of Parliament, the 
creatures of the late Administration, it is an- 
swered, No. He should think of no other sup- 
port, as Minister, in so dangerous a time, but the 
rectitude of his measures and intentions; if Par- 
liament will not support these, that Parliament 
may become a victim of public despair, and he 
have this satisfaction, at least, of being the single 
man spared by an enraged and ruined nation. 

Mr. Townshend entreated that he might com- 
municate these propositions to Mr. Pitt, without 
concealing the author. Their first interview was 
on the Monday following. Townshend frankly 
declared, that his sentiments upon the present 
conjuncture were contained in a short paper com- 
posed by an old acquaintance of Mr. Pitt's; and 
on his inquiring who it was, mentioned Mr. Glover's 
name. He was in bed, and so helpless with pain, 
that Townshend read the paper to him : he gave 
his assent, excepting to no part, assuring him that 
that paper contained his sentiments likewise. One 
circumstance, minute indeed, but serving to illus- 
trate his character, must not be omitted. Mr. 

c This was George Townshend, created Marquis Townshend in 
1787. He died Sept. 14/ 1807, father to the late Marquis 
who was President of the Society of Antiquaries. 

C 



18 

Townshend told me, that when he came to the 
fifth article, which ascribes Pitt's exaltation merely 
to calamitous events, without any compliment to 
his abilities or merit, he shrunk back; — Town- 
shend perceiving his pride was hurt, interposed a 
manly comment, that whatever esteem the author 
might have of him personally, this was not an oc- 
casion to make compliments, but to state facts 
and argument; Pitt soon recollecting himself, an- 
swered, " I understand my friend perfectly, I 
agree with him entirely." 11 

Mr. Pitt also made Glover a confidential ad- 
viser after he was dismissed from office, on the 5th 
of April, 1757, and consulted him upon the answer 
he should give to the city of London, on being pre- 
sented with the freedom of that city, and also, upon 
what political measures he should adopt as to a 
coalition with the Duke of Newcastle. On this 
occasion Mr. Pitt disclosed to him the most mate- 
rial occurrences between himself and the King 
during the late administration, by which it ap- 
peared that the King had never reposed the least 
confidence in him; but in Glover's own words, 
" was awed by Pitt's spirit and popular name to 
treat him with a civil, though inflexible reserve."' 

Glover's advice to Pitt as to the kind of an- 
swer which he ought to give to the city, on re- 
ceiving the freedom, together with his conversa- 
tion with him as to a coalition with the Duke of 
d Mem. p. 66. c Mem. p. B§. 



19 

Newcastle, are very characteristic of his mind, and 
and much in the tone of feeling of Junius. 

" Pitt asked me in what manner I would ad- 
vise him to word his answer to the City of London, 
upon the compliment they intended to make him 
of his freedom. I advised him to be very general 
in his expressions, and to retain in his private 
thoughts as little regard to their present approba- 
tion, as he had done to their censure in the case of 
Byng ; to form, as an honest man, the best opi- 
nions he was able, and ever keep in remem- 
brance, that 

Justum et tenacem propositi virum 
Non civium ardor prava jubentium, 
Non vultus instantis tyranni, 
Mente quatit solida' f 

That his greatest trial was immediate; all orders 
and conditions of men were now united in one 
cry for a coalition between him and the Duke of 
Newcastle, whose instability, treachery, timidity, 
and servile devotion to the King, were indisputably 
known; and to whom, interposed Mr. Pitt, all our 
public misfortunes are more imputable than to 
any other man. But what must be done? we are 
now in the most desperate and flagitious hands, 
capable of any violence. The Duke of Cumber- 
land would not hesitate to silence the complaints 
of an aggrieved people by a regiment of the 

f Horace, Ode 3. Lib, III. 
c 2 



20 

Guards, a measure which Fox would as little 
scruple to advise ; I grant them, said I, to be the 
heads of a Catilinarian band; but will your union 
with Newcastle prevent the mischief? Do not 
imagine, replied he, that I can be induced to unite 
with him, unless sure of power; I mean power 
over public measures : the disposition of officers, 
except the few efficient ones of Administration, 
the creating Deans, Bishops, and every placeman 
besides, is quite out of my plan, and which I wil- 
lingly would relinquish to the Duke of Newcastle. 
Give me leave, said I, to suppose you united in 
Administration with him ; then let us consider 
the part which he (admitting him to be sincere.) 
will have to act. You have no command in ei- 
ther House of Parliament and have experienced 
the personal dislike of the King. You must de- 
pend altogether on the Duke of Newcastle for a 
majority in Parliament, and on his righting your 
battles in the closet ; and, to speak plainly, using 
his efforts to alienate a father from a favoured 
son, who is your declared enemy. 

" Supposing Newcastle sincere, is his compo- 
sition stern enough for such encounters? But, 
knowing him false, selfish, and insatiable of power, 
will he not rather make his own way, and re- 
establish himself in the King's favour by every 
servile gratification of his will? Then shall I be 
grieved to see you, the first man in Great Britain, 
at this juncture, become a subaltern to the lowest. 



i 



£1 

Sir, you are governed by a noble principle, the 
love of fame; do not hazard that glorious acqui- 
sition on such precarious ground. As you are the 
only object in the nation's eye, every wrong mea- 
sure, every miscarriage will be imputed to you. 
You may say you can but quit your situation 
again : true; but are you sure of returning to the 
same situation of character and importance which 
you now possess ? Necessity brought you in, the 
last time ; you soon found there was no raising an 
edifice without materials: the materials cannot 
exist, till calamity has utterly changed the tern* 
per, manners, and principles of the whole nation. 
Calamity, perhaps, is not very distant from us: 
when you can command your materials, and ne- 
cessity puts the power in your hands, then resume 
your task. To conclude, I mean, that with such 
a coadjutor as Newcastle, and with such a 
House of Commons, it is impossible for an 
honest man to serve his country : and I am satis- 
fied, that your magnanimity, experience, and dis- 
cernment, must see this coalition in a worse light 
than I am capable of representing it. After all, 
Sir, if you must yield to the pressure of all your 
friends, and the whole publick, soliciting and cla- 
mouring for this measure, remember I compare 
you to Curtius, whose courage I should have ad- 
mired when he leapt into the gulph; though, as 
his friend, I never would have counselled him to 
take that leap. I then took occasion to pass some 



22 

compliments upon him, which, together with my 
preceding discourse, drew this answer. 

" I am quite happy in the good opinion you 
entertain of your old acquaintance. Let me as- 
sure you that I have drawn a line, which I will 
not pass: so far, perhaps, I may be driven, but 
beyond it — never. " f 

Glover was now esteemed as a considerable 
auxiliary to the Whig party. At this time he in- 
terested himself in the establishment of Mr. Town- 
shend's Militia act, and was one of its warmest 
supporters, and no political measure was agitated 
that was indifferent to him. On Dec. 21, 1760, 
immediately after the death of the late King, 
Dodington says, 

" Mr. Glover was with me, and was full of ad- 
miration of Lord Bute : he applauded his conduct 
and the King's : saying, that they would beat 
every thing; but a little time must be allowed for 
the madness of popularity to cool. He was not 
determined about political connexions, but, I be- 
lieve, he will come to us." § 

J Mem. p. 85. 
* Diary, p. 3/3. Junius had also high expectation of the poli- 
tical prospect which was presented to the country on the accession 
of his present Majesty. " When our gracious Sovereign ascended 
the throne we were a flourishing and a contented people." Junius, 
Vol. i. p. 50. " You (the King) found your subjects pleased with 
the novelty of a young prince, whose countenance promised even 
more than his words, and loyal to you, not only from principle, but 
passion." Vol. it. p. 66. " The King found this country in that 



23 

The last sentence of this paragraph plainly 
shews the estimation in which he was held by his 
contemporary politicians. 

May 1761, he was chosen Member of Par- 
liament for Weymouth, and sate till March 1 1 
1768. In this Parliament he occasionally spoke, 
and always divided with George Grenville. From 
this time he took no ostensible part in politics, 
but his political reputation was not at all impaired 
or diminished. 

From a letter dated March 7, 1773, by Mr. 
Woodfall, ample testimony is given of the stea- 
diness of his principles, and of the similarity of 
his politics to those of Junius, to whom this let- 
ter is addressed. " Should it please the Almighty 
to spare your life till the next general election, 
and I should at that time exist, I shall hope you 
will deign to instruct me for whom I should 
give my vote, as my wish is to be represented 
by the most honest and able, and I know there 
cannot be any one who is so fit to judge as 
yourself. I have no connexions to warp me, nor 
am I acquainted with but one person who would 
speak to me on the subject, and that gentleman 
is, I believe, a true friend to the real good of his 
country ; I mean Mr. Glover, the author of Leoni- 
das." a By this declaration it would seem that if 

state of perfect union and happiness which good government natu- 
rally produceg, and which a bad one has destroyed." Vol. Hi. p. 37 1 . 
a Junius, vol. i.p. *258. 



24 

Glover was not Junius, Mr. Woodfall, at least, 
ranked him the next, for political wisdom and 
sincere patriotism. To this letter Junius returned 
no answer. 

In February 1775 he was intrusted by the 
West India planters and Merchants to support 
their interest at the bar of the House of Commons, 
to represent the evils of an association entered into 
by the congress, held at Philadelphia, which had for 
its object the injury of the trade to the continent 
of America, from the islands in the West Indies. 
On this occasion Glover was their advocate; h& 
acquitted himself with the greatest credit by a 
very long investigation of the merits of the case, . 
and an eloquent address to the House. 

" I bend under the weight of a subject so aw- 
ful, a weight increased by my own thoughts anti- 
cipating calamities, in which every inhabitant 
throughout this extensive empire, more or less, 
may have a share." h 

Speaking of Ireland with respect to the dimi- 
nution of its exports, he says, " The evil hour is 
advancing, not yet come ; no sooner come, than 
felt, it may produce a discovery too late, that high 
sounding words supply no food to the hungry, no 
raiment to the naked; and that these throughout 
our empire may amount to millions in number — 
But new channels of supply shall be found ; our 

h Petition of the West India Planters, with the evidence adduced 
at the Bar of the House of Commons, Feb. 2, 177 5, P- 6. 



25 

potency can surmount all difficulties. It is full 
time to begin the essay in Ireland, lest, during the 
experiment, emigration, so constant there, should 
change to depopulation." 1 He then reverts to 
the situation of this happy country with his usual 
gloomy feelings. 

1 Petition of the Planters, &c. p. J6. Junius says of the Irish 
who emigrated to America : " They left their native land in 
search of freedom, and found it in a desert." — Junius, vol. ii. p. 77. 

Junius thus regrets the state of Ireland, (May 28, 1/70.) 
" The extraordinary prorogation of the Irish Parliament, and the 
just discontents of that kingdom have been passed by without 
notice." Vol. i. p. 146. 

Junius to the King. 

" The people of Ireland have been uniformly plundered and 
oppressed. In return, they give you every day fresh marks of 
their resentment. They despise the miserable governor you have 
sent them, because he is the creature of Lord Bute ; nor is it from 
any natural confusion in their ideas, that they are so ready to con- 
found the original of a King with the disgraceful representation of 
him. 

" The distance of the Colonies would make it impossible for 
them to take any active concern in your affairs, if they were as well 
affected to your government as they once pretended to be to your 
person. They were ready enough to distinguish between you and 
your ministers. They complained of an act of the legislature, but 
traced the origin of it no higher than to the servants of the crown : 
They pleased themselves with the hope that their Sovereign, if not 
favourable to their cause, at least was impartial. The decisive, 
personal part you took against them, has effectually banished that 
first distinction from their minds. They consider you as united 
with your servants against America, and know how to distinguish 
the Sovereign and a venal parliament on one side, from the real 
sentiments of the English people on the other." Vol. ii. p. 75, 



26 

" I now return to England, not a member, but 
the head. Her sorrows I will leave to the con- 
templation of that superior class, which must be 
the ultimate and permanent sufferer. The sage 
Mr. Locke would tell the country gentlemen, that 
his visible property must re-place the loss of public 
revenue, that he must provide for a nation of 
hungry and naked, or sink into utter debility and 
despondency, when the sun rises no more on this 
once flourishing island, but to see the desertion of 
inhabitants, and a wretched remnant, wandering 
unclad and unfed in lamentation over a wil- 
derness." 1 

On the impolicy of direct taxation in America, 
when we were by commerce deriving, from our 
colonies, all the possible advantage attainable in 
the nature of things, he says, " What looks would 
our ancestors cast on their blind posterity, who 
on every start of pecuniary contribution ' from 
America, have under three administrations been 
open-mouthed, and are still for American taxation? 
Let the three administrations have all the justifi- 
cation of Defendit numerus, junctceque umbone pha- 
langes." * 

' Petition of the Planters, &c. p. 77 '• 
k Petition of the Planters, &C. p. 7Q. 

Junius speaks thus, " Neither the general situation of our 
colonies, nor that particular distress which forced the inhabitants 
of Boston to take up arms in their defence, have been thought 
worthy of a moment's consideration. In the repeal of those acts.. 



27 

" Sir, I foresee, these differences with America 
will be composed, and how — Here, silence becomes 
me best — It will be so late, that Great Britain 
must receive a wound which no time can heal — 
A philosophical sense of dignity must step in 
under the shape of consolation." 1 

After reading this address delivered at the bar 
of the House of Commons in \775, it is important, 
to shew the true character of Mr. Glover's mind, 
the steadiness of his principles, and the boldness 
of his declamation, to revert to his speech delivered 
at the bar of the House thirty years before this 
time, when he exhibited the same lofty tone of 
feeling, and the same spirit of independence. 

" Sir, after the many grievances already enu- 
merated, to tell the Committee" 1 that the heaviest 
is yet behind, will perhaps awaken their astonish- 
ment, and, I humbly hope, bespeak their patience 
a little longer. However considerable, however 

which were most offensive to America, the parliament have done 
every thing, but remove the offence. They have relinquished the 
revenue, but judiciously taken care to preserve the contention. It 
is not pretended that the continuance of the tea duty is to produce 
any direct benefit whatsoever to the mother country. What is it 
then but an odious, unprofitable exertion of a speculative right, 
and fixing a badge of slavery upon the Americans, without service 
to their masters? But it has pleased God to give us a ministry and 
a parliament, who are neither to be persuaded by argument, nor 
instructed by experience." Vol. ii. p. \4J. 

1 Petition of the Planters, &c. p. 8/\ 

m This was a committee of the whole House. 



28 

meritorious to the public the mercantile interest 
of Great Britain may appear at this bar; what- 
ever degree of indulgence and regard the mer- 
chants may have found from this great assembly, 
in other places they have severely experienced 
that they were deemed unworthy of the public 
concern : their complaints have been received 
with indifference, and their misfortunes imbittered 
with insult and scorn. Have applications been 
made setting forth the misconduct of a com- 
mander who deserted the trade under his convoy, 
and left it exposed as a prey to the enemy? Was 
any redress obtained ? What answer was returned 
but tins? What would you have with this captain, 
would you have him turned out, and the master of a 
merchant-man put into his room? You would have 
all the captains of his Majesty s ships turned out, 
and masters of merchant-men put into their place ? 
Have public representations been made from our 
Northern Colonies, that their coast was neglected 
and defenceless ? was the least remedy applied to 
the evil? or does it appear that the commanders, 
the most notoriously guilty of neglect, have met 
with the least rebuke? Has murder been com- 
mitted in the arbitrary impressing of men, the law 
violated, and the civil magistrate set at defiance ? 
Was a regular complaint preferred against this 
proceeding? What reparation has been made? or 
in what manner has justice been satisfied ? The 
law underwent a second violation from the military 



529 

power, the murderers were acquitted by a mock 
trial in a court-martial, who might have been con- 
demned in a court of justice, and are at this hour 
liable to be tried for wilful murder." " l 

From the year 1775 Mr. Glover retired from 
public business, but was not indifferent to public 
concerns to the day of his death, which took place 
Nov. 25, 1785. 

In his person and habits he was a finished gen- 
tleman of the old school, slow and precise in his 
manner, grave and serious in his deportment, and 
always in the highest degree decorous; but his 
natural temper was, though benevolent, at once 
irritable and violent." He was very strict in his 
moral conduct, and although he went to the 
established church, was brought up a dissenter. 
Before the year 1776 he wore a bag, his wig 
very accurately dressed, and a small cocked hat 
under his arm, and in this costume, in fine 

CT A short Account of the late Application to Parliament hy the 
Merchants of London, upon the Neglect of their Trade, as summed 
up by Mr. Glover at the Bar of the House of Commons, Jan. 27, 
1742. p. 49. 

This accusation cannot fail to remind the reader of the affair 
of Mac Quirk. — Junius, Letter VIII. In the letter of Junius to 
the Livery of London, Vol. ii. p. 344 -, and against Lord Mans- 
field, vol. ii. p. 355. is shewn the same style of interrogatory 
declamation. 

n Junius says of himself that he was naturally phlegmatic, but, 
that any measure which had a tendency to invade the laws, directly, 
or indirectly, or to sap the constitution,, roused his passions. Vol. i. 
p. *308. 



30 

weather, he constantly walked from his house 
in James Street, Westminster, into the City, 
Afterwards he gradually changed his dress to con- 
form, in some degree, to the fashion of the day. 
I have been thus particular, because I cannot help 
suspecting that the person described by Mr. Jack- 
son, who threw a letter into Mr. Woodfalfs office 
in Ivy Lane, was Mr. Glover himself, though he 
describes the person as a tall Gentleman, which 
does not correspond to Mr. Glover's stature. In 
reading Mr. Good's note, which records this inci- 
dent, one difficulty occurred still more objection- 
able ; that as Glover must have been well known 
to Mr. . Woodfall, it was improbable that he should 
put his discovery to such a hazard ; but from in- 
formation, not given by Mr. Good, I find that the 
letter from Junius was thrown into the office 
between eleven and twelve o'clock at night, which 
is a material circumstance, and ought not to have 
been omitted in the relation of that incident.* 

From a review of Mr. Glover's life and writings, 
it is obvious that his mind was devoted to political 

a Mr. Jackson, the present respectable proprietor of the Ipswich 
Journal, was at this time in the employment of the late Mr. Wood- 
fall, and he observed to the editor, in September last, that he once 
saw a tall Gentleman, dressed in a light coat with bag and sword, 
throw into the office door opening in Ivy Lane, a letter of Junius's, 
which he picked up, and immediately followed the bearer of it into 
St. Paul's Church-yard, where he got into a hackney coach, and 
drove off. But whether this was " the gentleman who transacted 
the conveyancing part" or Junius himself, it is impossible to 
ascertain. Junius, Vol, I. p. *43. 



31 

considerations; but such was his reserve on those 
subjects, that in his own domestic circle and by 
his fire-side, he was always the poet or philoso- 
pher, or an agreeable narrator of familiar incidents; 
and never permitted political discussions to in- 
trude. When occasionally any question arose, 
which involved political inquiry, he would turn 
the subject aside, by referring the question to 
Mr. A. or B. who, he would playfully observe, was 
a consummate Doctor in that art. 

Junius represents himself to be a family man, 
Letter XXXIII, Vol III. and alludes to that 
state of domestic enjoyment, in his letter to Mr. 
Wilkes, well suited to Mr. Glover's habits, "The 
domestic society you speak of is much to be 
envied. I fancy I should like it still better than 
you do. I too am no enemy to good fellowship, 
and have often cursed that canting parson for 
wishing to deny you your claret. It is for him 
and men like him, to beware of intoxication. 
Though I do not place the little pleasures of life 
in competition with the glorious business of in- 
structing and directing the people ; yet I see no 
reason why a wise man may not unite the public 
virtues of Cato with the indulgence of Epicurus."* 

Mr. Glover was an accomplished scholar, b and 

a Junius, vol. i, p. *313. 
b Dr. Warton says, that Glover was one of the best and most 
accurate Greek scholars of his time. It is singular that when Ju- 
nius writes a larger character than his accustomed feigned hand, 
as in the superscription of a letter, lie forms the letter (a) upon the 
principle of a Greek Alpha (a), such as the a in Paternoster Row, 



32 

had all the advantages that affluent circumstances 
and the best company could give. He was ever 
strongly attached to the principles of the con- 
stitution: his politics were those of Junius ; b 
and he was of the private councils of men in 
the highest station in the state, throughout the 
greater part of a long and active life. At the 
time the Letters of Junius were written, he had 
attained an age which could allow him, without 
vanity, to boast of an ample knowledge and ex- 
perience of the world ; and during the period of 
their publication he resided in London, and was 
engaged in no pursuits incompatible with his de- 
voting his time to their composition; so that, in 
his letter to Mr. Wilkes, he might justly say, " I 
offer you the sincere opinion of a man who per- 
haps has more leisure to make reflections than 
you have, and who, though he stands clear of 
business and intrigue, mixes sufficiently for the 
purposes of intelligence in the conversation of 
the world." c Thus, agreeably to any hypothesis 
that has been formed of Junius, the character of 
Mr. Glover accurately corresponds. 

During the whole of Mr. Glover's life, it does 
not appear that he ever had any place or official 
appointment. Of all his political connexions, 

given as a facsimile, though imperfectly, in vol. i. of Mr. Mason 
Good's edition, which would seem to imply that the author was 
in the habit of writing Greek. 

b See the political opinions of Junius stated, p. 5 1. 
« Last edition of Junius, vol. i. p. *265. 



33 

Mr. Samuel Martin was a man for whom he had 
an uniform esteem; they were governed by the 
same political principles through life; he calls him 
the " sincerest of mankind, and the strictest ob- 
server of truth." I mention this circumstance to 
shew a remarkable similarity of feeling between 
a passage, in Junius and one, expressing the same 
sentiment, contained in a letter written to the 
Duke of Newcastle, a copy of which was pri- 
vately sent to Mr. Glover. Martin refused 1500/1 
a year from the Duke of Newcastle upon prin- 
ciple, saying, " What I have thought wrong in 
the case of others, I should be self-condemned* 
if I consented to, and became a principal party 
in, for my own private emolument. I do not 
presume to judge your Grace, who is not to be 
tried by my principles, and to whom I am be- 
holden for seeking every expedient to serve me; 
but these principles, such as they are, whether 
sound or whimsical, must govern me." a Junius 
says, " It is true I have refused offers which a 
more prudent or a more interested man would 
have accepted ; whether it be simplicity or virtue 
in me, I can only affirm that I am in earnest, be- 
cause I am convinced, as far as my understand- 
ing is capable of judging, that the present minis- 
try are driving this country to destruction. " b 
Mr. Glover did not receive his education at 

* See this letter in the Addenda. 

* Junius, Vol. III. p. 202. 

P 



34 

either of the Universities, neither has the author 
of the Letters of Junius shewn any affection to- 
wards them;- but, on the contrary, Cambridge is 
made to share some portion of the satire that he 
bestows on its Chancellor. " Whenever the spirit 
of distributing prebends and bishopricks shall 
have departed from you, you will find that learned 
seminary perfectly recovered from the delirium 
of an installation, and, what in truth it ought to 
be, once more become a peaceful scene of slumber 
and thoughtless meditation." b To Sir Wm. Draper 
Junius says, "An academical education has given 
you an unlimitted command over the most beau- 
tiful figures of speech. — I will not contend with 
you in point of composition, you are a scholar, Sir 
William, and if I am truly informed, you write 
Latin with almost as much purity as English. 
Suffer me then, for I am a plain unlettered man, 
to continue that style of interrogation, which 
suits my capacity, and to which, considering the 
readiness of your answers, you ought to have n© 
objection." 

Such expressions of themselves have but little 
weight; but as the character of a man is sometimes 
seen in little traits, and is most genuine, where 
least suspected, these reflections on the University- 
will appear striking when contrasted with the same 
author's sense of the dignity of the City of Lon- 
don. "A king indeed is not obliged to under- 
k Vol. I. p. 172. c Vol. I. p. 99. 



35 

stand the political forms and constitution of every 
corporation in his dominions; but his ministers 
must be uncommonly ignorant who could not 
save him the embarrassment of asking such a 
question concerning the first body corporate in 
the world ; who, I doubt not, will fully explain to 
those to whom it may concern, who they are, and 
what is the nature of their assembly."* 

Junius always speaks of city honours with 
becoming respect, while he speaks of the rank of 
Nobility with irritation and contempt. "Crosby's 
view must be directed, then, to the flattering dis- 
tinction of succeeding to a second Mayoralty, 
and, what is still more honourable, to the being 
thought worthy of it by his fellow-citizens." " I 
should be glad to mortify those contemptible 
creatures who call themselves noblemen. 1 ' Great 
men are indeed a worthless, pitiful race. 

Mr. Glover wrote with great difficulty to him- 
self, and all his literary compositions cost him 
much labour. In this respect there is a 
great analogy between him and Junius, who 
when he did not take pains, wrote very unlike 
himself. No one would imagine that these two 
letters could have been written by the same 
person. All his letters signed Philo-Junius are 
of a subordinate character to those signed Juxus, 

* Vol. III. p. 259. 



36 



TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF GRAFTOX. 

Is it enough that Abra should be great 
In the walld palace or the rural seat P 
Oh, ?w! Jerusalem combined must see 
My open shame aud boasted infamy, 

3UY LORD, 

Permit me to congratulate your grace 
upon a piece of good fortune which few men, of 
the best established reputation, have been able to 
attain to. The most accomplished persons have 
usually some defect, some weakness in their cha- 
racters, which diminishes the lustre of their 
brighter qualifications. Tiberius had his forms : — 
Charteris now and then deviated into honesty; 
and even Lord Bute prefers the simplicity of se- 
duction to the poignant pleasures of a rape. But 
yours, my lord, is a perfect character : through 
every line of public and of private life you are 
consistent with yourself. After doing every thing, 
in your public station, that a minister might rea- 
sonably be ashamed of, you have determined, with 
a noble spirit of uniformity, to mark your personal 
history by such strokes as a gentleman, without 
any great disgrace to his assurance, might be per- 
mitted to blush for. I had already conceived a 
high opinion of your talents and disposition. 
Whether the property of the subject, or the gene- 
ral rights of the nation were to be invaded \ or 



37 

whether you were tired of one lady, and chose 
another for the honourable companion of your 
pleasures; whether it was a horse-race or a ha- 
zard-table; a noble disregard of forms seemed to 
operate through all your conduct. But you have 
exceeded my warmest expectations. Highly as I 
thought of you, your grace must pardon me when 
I confess that there was one effort which I did 
not think you equal to. I did not think you ca- 
pable of exhibiting the lovely Thais a at the opera- 
house, of sitting a whole night by her side, of 
calling for her carriage yourself, and of leading 
her to it through a crowd of the first men and 
women in the kingdom. To a mind like yours, 
my lord, such an outrage to your wife, such a 
triumph over decency, such insult to the com- 
pany, must have afforded the highest gratification. 
When all the ordinary resources of pleasure were 
exhausted, this I presume was your novissima vo- 
luptas. It is of a lasting nature, my lord, and I 
dare say will give you as much pleasure upon re- 
flection, as it did in the enjoyment. After so ho- 
nourable an achievement, a poet's imagination 
could add but one ray more to the lustre of your 
character. Obtain a divorce, marry the lady, and 
I do not doubt but Mr. Bradshaw will be civil 
enough to give her away with an honest, artless 
smile of approbation. b 

' * Nancy Parsons, afterwards Lady Maynard. 
b Letter XLI. is one of the best of the compositions of Ju- 



38 

TO THE PRINTER OF THE PUBLIC ADVERTISER. 
SIR. 7 September, l?6g, 

I find myself unexpectedly married in 
the newspapers without my knowledge or con- 
sent. Since 1 am fated to be a husband, I hope 
at least the lady will perform the principal duty 
of a wife. Marriages, they say, are made in hea- 
ven, but they are consummated upon earth, and 
since Junta has adopted my name, she cannot, in 
common matrimonial decency, refuse to make me 
a tender of her person. Politics are too barren a 
subject for a new married couple. I should be 
glad to furnish her with one more tit for a lady to 
handle, and better suited to the natural dexterity 
of her sex. In short, if Junta be young and 
handsome, she will have no reason to complain of 
mv method of conducting an argument 1 
minate all tergiversation in discourse, and she 
may be assured that whatever I advance, whether 
it be weak or forcible, shall, at any rate, be di- 
rectly in point. It is true I am a strenuous advo- 
cate for liberty and property, but when these 
rights are invaded by a pretty woman, I am nei- 
ther able to defend my money nor my freedom. 
The divine right of beauty is the only one an 

nius, which I should have printed in the stead of this, had it not 
been quite so long. 



39 

Englishman ought to acknowledge, and a pretty 
woman the only tyrant he is not authorised to 
resist." 

JUNIUS. 

When style in writing is to be considered as 
evidence, for, or against, the resemblance of dif- 
ferent authors, it is of the utmost importance to 
attend to the circumstances under which the au- 
thor wrote, and the object he had in view. If 
they are lost sight of, wrangling will supply the 
place of argument, and fallacious conclusions will 
be the result. 3 

This extract conveys no idea of the acrimo- 
nious style of Junius, or the acuteness of his mind. 
" As to cutting away the rotten boroughs, I am 
as much offended as any man at seeing so many 
of them under the direct influence of the crown, 
or at the disposal of private persons, yet I own I 
have both doubts and apprehensions, in regard to 
the remedy you propose. I shall be charged, per- 
haps, with an unusual want of political intrepidity, 
when I honestly confess to you, that I am startled 
at the idea of so extensive an amputation. Jn the 
first place, I question the power de jure of the 
legislature to disfranchise a number of boroughs 

a This remark I should have thought unnecessary, had I not 
found intelligent persons who have compared the Memoir of Glover, 
with the Letters of Junius, as if they were in all respects to ba 
considered as similar compositions. 



40 

upon the general ground of improving the con- 
stitution. There cannot be a doctrine more fatal 
to the liberty and property we are contending for, 
than that which confounds the idea of a supreme 
and an arbitrary legislature. I need not point 
out to you, the fatal purposes to which it has 
been, and may be applied. If we are sincere in 
the political creed we profess, there are many 
things which we ought to affirm, cannot be done 
by King, Lords, and Commons. Among the.se I 
reckon the disfranchising a borough with a gene- 
ral view to improvement. I consider it as equi- 
valent to robbing the parties concerned, of their 
freehold, of their birthright. I say, that although 
this birthright may be forfeited, or the exercise 
of it suspended in particular cases, it cannot be 
taken away by a general law, for any real or pre- 
tended purpose of improving the constitution. 
I believe there is no power in this country to 
make such a law. Supposing the attempt made, 
I am persuaded you cannot mean that either King 
or Lords should take an active part in it. A bill, 
which only touches the representation of the 
people, must originate in the House of Commons, 
in the formation and mode of passing it. The 
exclusive right of the Commons must be asserted 
as scrupulously as in the case of a Money Bill. 
Now, Sir, I should be glad to know by what kind 
of reasoning it can be proved that there is a power 
vested in the representative to destroy his imme- 



41 

diate constituent : from whence could he possibly 
derive it? A courtier, I know, will be ready 
enough to maintain the affirmative. The doctrine 
suits him exactly, because it gives an unlimited 
operation to the influence of the crown. But we, 
Mr. Wilkes, must hold a different language. It is 
no answer to me to say, that the bill, when it 
passes the House of Commons, is the act of the 
majority, and not of the representatives of the 
particular boroughs concerned. If the majority 
can disfranchise ten boroughs, why not twenty? 
Why not the whole kingdom? Why should not 
they make their own seats in parliament for life ? 
When the Septennial Act passed, the legislature 
did what apparently and palpably they had no 
power to do; but they did more than people in 
general were aware of; they disfranchised the 
whole kingdom for four years." a 

When from the distressed state of the King's 
Councils, in the year 1745, Mr. Pitt was first forced 
into the administration, Mr. Glover expresses him- 
self, as I conceive, very much in the style of 
Junius. 

" Disinterested motives, and an object of pub- 
lic advantage extorted from the Crown, would 
have rendered the measure illustrious to all poste- 
rity; but the motives were selfish, the object was 
power : this conduct therefore of the Pelhams was 
* Junius to Mr, Wilkes, vol. i. p. *287. 



42 

ungrateful towards a Prince ever profitable to 
them, and factious towards the State, which they 
never had served either ably or vigilantly, nor 
meant to serve in this instance: their single aim 
was to annihilate all rivalship, and establish an 
unbounded authority over a weak, narrow, sordid, 
and unfeeling master, who, seated by fortune on 
a throne, was calculated by nature for a pawn- 
broker's shop, and was easily reconciled to a set 
of men willing and able to gratify his low avarice, 
in his ideas, a sufficient compensation for the sa- 
crifice he made them of his resentments and his 
prerogative. Hating Mr. Pitt, he preferred him : 
the ministers, who had hurled back his favours in 
his face, he restored not only to employment, but 
to his confidence, and the sole power of three 
kingdoms: among so great a number, Lord Har- 
rington was the only one he did not forgive, and 
whom he was permitted to disgrace. Pitt co- 
operated with the Pelhams in every point, and 
brought himself to a level with the Earl of Bath 
in the public disesteem, not more by his votes, 
than by his hot and unguarded expressions in Par- 
liament ; the most indecent of which was, a need- 
less encomium on the late Sir Robert Walpole, 
reproaching himself for his opposition to him, and 
professing a veneration for his ashes." 

If it should be urged that those bitter invec- 
tives against the King with which the Letters of 
Junius abound, could not have been .written bv 



43 

Glover, because he dedicated his Medea to the 
King, I shall answer, that the dedication was 
written in the year 1761, immediately after the 
King's accession to the throne, when it appears 
that Mr. Glover and Junius perfectly agreed in the 
bright prospect before them ; see Dodington's 
Diary, page 373. Junius says, " the King found 
this country in that state of perfect union and 
happiness which good government naturally pro- 
duces, and which a bad one has destroyed." 3 
" When our gracious Sovereign ascended the throne 
we were a flourishing people. " b 

" You ascended the throne with a declared, 
and, I doubt not, a sincere resolution of giving 
universal satisfaction to your subjects. You 
found them pleased with the novelty of a young 
prince, whose countenance promised even more 
than his words, and loyal to you not only from 
principle, but passion. It was not a cold profes- 
sion of allegiance to the first magistrate, but a 
partial, animated attachment to a favourite prince, 
the native of their country, They did not wait 
to^examine your conduct, nor to be determined 
by experience, but gave you a generous credit for 

a Vol. ill p. 171. b Vol. i. p. 50. 

c (( Born and educated in this country, I glory in the name of 
Briton ; and the peculiar happiness of my life will ever consist in 
promoting the welfare of a people, whose loyalty and warm affec- 
tion to me, I consider as the greatest and most permanent security 
ef my throne." King's Speech, November 18, 17^0. 



44 

the future blessings of your reign, and paid you 
in advance the dearest tribute of their affections: 
Such, Sir, was once the disposition of a people, 
who now surround your throne with reproaches 
and complaints." 3 Added to these testimonies, 
Glover's own opinion of kings is sufficiently con- 
clusive. — Mem. p. 35. 

Glover's character of the Pelhams is perfectly 
in unison with the feeling of Junius. 

" March 6, 1754, Mr. Henry Pelham died. 
He was originally an officer in the army, and a 
professed gamester; of a narrow mind, and low 
parts ; of an affable dissimulation, and a plausible 
cunning ; false to Sir Robert Walpole, who raised 
him, and ungrateful to the Earl of Bath, who pro- 
tected him. By long experience and attendance, 
he became considerable as a Parliament-man ; and> 
even when Minister, divided his time, to the last, 
between his office and the club of gamesters at 
White's." b 

" The Duke of Newcastle was a man of whom 
no one ever spoke with cordial regard, of parts 
and conduct which generally drew animadver- 
sions bordering on contempt, of notorious insin- 
cerity, political cowardice, and servility to the 
highest and the lowest; yet, insincere without 
gall, ambitious without pride, luxurious, jovial, 
hospitable to all men, of an exorbitant estate, af- 

a Vol. ii. p. 66. b Mem. p. 36. 



4> 

fable, forgetful of offences, and profuse of his. 
favours indiscriminately to all his adherents; he 
had established a faction by far the most power- 
ful in this country: hence he derived that in- 
fluence which encouraged his unworthy preten- 
sions to ministerial power; nor was he less in- 
debted to his experience of a Court, a long practice 
in all its craft, whence he had acquired a certain 
art of imposition, that in every negociation with 
the most distinguished popular leaders, however 
superior to himself in understanding, from the in- 
stant they began to depart from ingenuous and 
public principles, he never missed his advantage, 
nor failed of making them his property at last, 
and himself their master. Lord Cobham, Ches- 
terfield, the Duke of Bedford, Pitt, and others, 
found him so in 1743, when he took them into his 
confederacy to rout the Earl of Bath and Gran- 
ville. Pitt found him so in 1757, when this new 
coalition was formed to destroy the Duke of Cum- 
berland and Fox." a 

Junius in one of his bitter attacks on the 
Duke of Grafton, also satirizes the King in a sar- 
castic allusion to the influence of these two mi- 
nisters. " His late Majesty, under the happy in- 
fluence of a family connexion between his Minis- 
ters was relieved from the cares of Government." b 

Glover's speech to the Livery of London, on 

a Mem. p. 105. k Vol. i. p. U&. 



46 

losing his election for the office of Chamberlain, 
is animated by the same patriotism, without any 
party-spirit, which is equally the governing prin- 
ciple of Glover and of Junius. After having 
stated that he had several times exerted himself 
in the cause of his his fellow citizens at their re- 
quest, he says, " Permit me now to remind you, 
that when placed by these means in a light not 
altogether unfavourable, no lucrative reward was 
then the object of my pursuit; nor ever did the 
promises or offers of private emolument induce 
me to quit my independence, or vary from the 
least of my former professions, which always 
were, and remain still founded on the principles 
of universal liberty; principles which I assume 
the glory to have established on your records. 
Your sense, Liverymen of London, the sense of 
your great corporation, so repeatedly recom- 
mended to your representatives in parliament, 
were my sense, and the principal boast of all my 
compositions, containing matter imbibed in my 
earliest education, to which I have always ad- 
hered, by which I still abide, and which I will 
endeavour to bear down with me to the grave, 
and even at that gloomy period, when deserted by 
my good fortune, and under the severest trials, 
even then, by the same consistency of opinions 
and uniformity of conduct, I still preserved that 
part of my reputation which I originally derived 
from your favour, whatever I might pretend to call a 



47 

public character, unshaken and unblemished ; nor 
once, in the hour of affliction, did I banish from 
my thoughts the most sincere and conscientious 
intention of acquitting every private obligation, 
as soon as my good fortune should please to re- 
turn; a distant appearance of which seemed to 
invite me, and awakened some flattering expec- 
tations on the rumoured vacancy of the chamber- 
lain's office ; but always apprehending the impu- 
tation of presumption, and that a higher degree 
of delicacy and caution would be requisite in me 
than in any other candidate, I forbore, till late, 
to present myself once more to your notice, and 
then, for the first time, abstracted from a public 
consideration, solicited your favour for my own 
private advantage. My want of success shall not 
prevent my cheerfully congratulating this gentle- 
man 3 on his election, and you, on your choice of so 
worthy a magistrate, and if I may indulge a hope 
of departing this place with a share of your appro- 
batiDn and esteem, I solemnly from my heart de- 
clare, that I shall not bear away with me the least 
trace of disappointment" b 

a Sir Thomas Harrison. 

b In the preliminary part of this address, Glover expresses his 
acknowledgments to the Livery in general, for their candour, 
decency, and indulgence. In his Memoir he says, Pitt's '' hot 
and unguarded expressions in parliament, the most indecent of 
which was a needless encomium on the late Sir Robert Walpole." 
Mem. p. 33. These words are frequently used in this sense by 
Junius, and I do not remember their being used in any other. 



48 



A brief analysis and comparison of the political opi- 
nions of Junius and Glover. 

The first great and leading principle of Junius 
is, that magistrates and the ministers of government 
should ever be subservient to the laws. a To pre- 

— t( The man I have described would never prostitute his dignity 
in parliament by an indecent violence, either by opposing or de- 
fending a minister." Junius, vol. i. p. 235. " But if a case should 
happen, wherein a character not merely of private virtue but of 
public merit, receives an insult equally indecent _and ungrateful, this 
common concern is increased by that share of interest which every 
man claims to himself in the public welfare." Junius, vol. iii. p. 80, 
also vol. i. p. *272, 5Q, vol. ii. p. 360, vol. iii. p. 59, &c. it is used 
in the same sense. 

a The arguments used in defence of the late proceedings of 
the House of Commons would have a considerable weight with 
me, if I could persuade myself that the present House of Com- 
mons were really in that independent state in which the con- 
stitution meant to place them. If I could be satisfied that their 
resolutions were not previously determined in the king's cabinet, 
that no personal resentment was to be gratified, nor any mini- 
sterial purpose to be answered, under pretence of asserting their 
privileges, I own I should be very unwilling to raise or encourage 
any question between the strict right -of the subject, and that 
discretionary power which our representatives have assumed by 
degrees, and which, until of late years, they have very seldom 
abused. While the House of Commons form a real representation 
of the people, while they preserve their place in the constitution, 
distinct from the lords, and independent of the crown, I think 
to contend with them about the limits of their privileges would be 
contending with ourselves.* But the question will be materially 

* The necessity of securing the House of Commons against 
the king's power, so that no interruption might be given either to 



49 

serve the British Constitution, according to his 
view of the subject, in its utmost purity, is his 
whole aim : and his violence against men upon all 
occasions, is solely with a view to destroy their 
measures, when he considered them to be impolitic 
or unjust. His abuse and invective are governed 
by this principle; and when he attacks the private 
vices of men, he adopts that mode, only as an 
expedient to diminish the baneful effects of their 

altered, if it should appear that instead of preserving the due ba- 
lance of the constitution, they have thrown their whole weight 
into the same scale with the crown, and that their privileges, 
instead of forming a barrier against the encroachments of the other 
branches of the legislature, are made subservient to the views of 
the sovereign, and employed, under the direction of the minister, 
in the persecution of individuals, and the oppression of the people. 
In this case it would be the duty of every honest man to stand 
strictly to his right,-— to question every act of such an House of 
Commons with jealousy and suspicion, and wherever their pre- 
tended privileges trenched upon the known laws of the land, in 
the minutest instance, to resist them with a determined and 
scrupulous exactness. To ascertain the fact, we need only con- 
sider in what manner parliaments have been managed since his 
Majesty's accession." Junius, Vol. iii. Let. Q5. > 

the attendance of the members in parliament, or to the freedom of 
debate, was the foundation of parliamentary privilege j and we 
may observe in all the addresses of new appointed speakers to the 
sovereign, the utmost privilege they demand is liberty of speech 
and freedom from arrests. The very word privilege means no 
more than immunity, or a safeguard to the party who possesses \t 3 
and can never be construed into an active power of invading the 
right* of others. 

E 



50 

public actions.* To the Duke of Grafton he de- 
clares himself not to have been his personal enemy : 
" If I were personally your enemy, I might pity 
and forgive you." b And to Mr. Wilkes, he says, 
— " I have no resentments but against the com- 
mon enemy." c " I love the cause independent of 
persons." "It must be always a part of Junius's 
plan to support Mr. Wilkes while he makes com- 
mon cause with the people." d 

In pursuing this subject to give force to his 
political theory, he confesses himself, in some 
instances, to have overstepped the bounds of 
correct truth. — " It was necessary to the plan of 
that letter, to rate you lower than you deserved." e 
From the same motive he also bestowed praise, if 
he saw political good to be derived from it : — " I 
think it good policy to pay these compliments to 
Lord Chatham. " f 

To preserve and renovate the Constitution, his 
favourite theory, in common with Lord Chatham, 
was to have triennial Parliaments. 

With respect to his political creed, in his fifty- 

a I am here speaking of the professed principle and intention 
of Junius 3 how well or ill he executed or manifested his intentions, 
or how far his own private feelings have heightened or imbittered 
his invective, his works before the public will declare for them- 
selves. 

b Junius, Vol. ii. p. 90. c Junius, Vol. i. p. *334 

d Junius, Vol. i. p. *2()4, e Junius, Vol. i. p. *314. 

f Junius, Vol i. p. *2.QO. 



51 

ninth letter he has very fully and very clearly ex- 
pressed himself. " I can more readily admire the 
liberal spirit and integrity, than the sound judg- 
ment of any man, who prefers a republican form 
of government, in this or any other empire of 
equal extent, to a monarchy so qualified and 
limited as ours. I am convinced, that neither is 
it in theory the wisest system of government, nor 
practicable in this country. Yet, though I hope 
the English Constitution will for ever preserve its 
original monarchical form, I would have the 
manners of the people purely and strictly repub- 
lican. — I do not mean the licentious spirit of 
anarchy and riot — I mean a general attachment to 
the common weal, distinct from any partial at- 
tachment to persons or families ; — an implicit sub- 
mission to the laws only, and an affection to the 
magistrate, proportioned to the integrity and wis- 
dom, with which he distributes justice to hi.1 
people, and administers their affairs." a 

Throughout the whole of Junius there is a 
feeling of despondency for the public weal — " I 
am convinced, as far as my understanding is 
capable of judging, that the present ministry are 
driving this country to destruction." b " Commerce 
languishes, manufactures are oppressed, and pub- 
lic credit already feels her approaching dissolution : 
yet, under the direction of this council, we are 

* Junius, Vol, U\ p. 347. b Junius, Vol. in. p. 202. 

e2 



52 

to prepare for a dreadful contest with the colon ies, 
and a war with the whole house of Bourbon. I 
am not surprised that the generality of men should 
endeavour to shut their eyes to this melancholy 
prospect."* 

Again. " I most truly lament the condition to 
which we are reduced." — He had, therefore, as he 
expresses himself, " no resentments but against the 
common enemy." The same feelings characterize 
these Memoirs. The administration of Lord Chat- 
ham, then Mr. Pitt, " was the only means left to 
save a ruined nation. Calamitous events have set 
Mr. Pitt in his present high point of light." And 
again, " calamity perhaps is not very distant from 
us;" and the details which he has entered into 
in these Memoirs, " are only to delineate with ac- 
curacy the causes of this nation's fall," which to 
the author's ill-boding judgment, appeared to be 
inevitable. And though he had intimacies to a 
degree of friendship with the most distinguished 
politicians of his time, yet those intimacies were 
contracted on the public account, that when his 
principles were deserted by them, their society- 
was abandoned by him. b 

Junius says, " I should scorn to provide for a 
future retreat, or to keep terms with a man who 
preserves no measures with the public." 

a Junius, Vol. iii. p. 1/ 6. b Mem. p. 33. 

K Junius, Vol. ii. p. 91. 



53 

Glover valued himself on his knowledge of 
finance, and every year calculates the national 
debt. Junius in his letter, dated Aug. 1$, 1768, 
setting forth the decay of trade and the insecurity 
of the funds, states the national debt to be forty- 
six millions, in the year 1740; this date corres- 
ponds to the commencement of Glover's active 
political life ; and it is remarkable that when Mr. 
Glover died he had no money in the funds, 
although he had property of every other descrip- 
tion, to the amount of forty or fifty thousand 
pounds. a 

Glover's declamation breathes the same feel- 
ing as that of Junius, and is of the same charac- 
ter, allowing for the difference of mere narrative 
composition in the closet, and the full and un- 
bounded flood of indignant invective studiously 
polished, to fix and command public attention. — 
" When the measure of popular vices and follies 
is full, and co-operating with selfish and ambitious 
rulers, renders a nation contemptible, an honest 
individual who can assuage his aching heart with 

a Mr. Glover had money upon mortgage and bond, in land, 
and houses, freehold and copyhold, in the city of London, in 
Buckinghamshire, and in Kent, where he possessed the Manor of 
Downe. He had also lands in South Carolina, being a joint pro- 
prietor with two persons of the name of Bourdieu and Chollet, 
his particular friends, his proportion being as he expresses it him- 
self, one undivided third share. Fide the Will in Doctor? 
Commons . 



54 

r 

indifference, may stand justified not less to his 
own conscience, than to the unmeriting herd." a 

Junius. " I am filled with grief and indignation, 
when I behold a wise and gallant people lost in a 
stupidity, which does not feel, because it will not 
look forward. The voice of one man will hardly 
t>e heard when the voice of truth and reason i$ 
neglected; but as far as mine extends, the autho] 
of our ruin shall be marked out to the public; 
will not tamely submit to be sacrificed, nor si 
this country perish without warning. ,,b 

Again: "At a crisis like this, Sir, I shall not be 
very solicitous about these idle forms of respect 
which men in office think due to their characters 
and station; neither will I descend to a language 
beneath the importance of the subject I write on. 
When the fate of Great Britain is thrown upon 
the hazard of a die, by a weak, distracted, worth- 
less ministry, an honest man will always express 
all the indignation he feels.'' c 

Junius wrote neither for profit nor for fame, 
he never deserted his principles, and was ac- 
counted a dangerous auxiliary to every party in the 
kingdom ; d and addressing himself to Mr. WJlkes, 
he says, " I have faithfully served the public, 
without the possibility of a personal advantage/' 
And in a private letter to Mr. Woodfall — " In*the 

a Mem. p. 41. b Junius, Vol. iii. p. 1/6. 

c Junius, Vol, iii. p. 74. d Junius, Vol. ii. p. 205. 



65 

present state of things, if I were to write again, 
I must be as silly as any of the horned cattle that 
run mad through the city. I mean the cause and 
the public. Both are given up. I feel for the 
honour of this country, when I see that there are 
not ten men in it, who will unite and stand together 
upon any one question. But it is all alike, vile 
md contemptible." 51 

This is in the same temper of mind as Glover 
represents himself in the Memoir : " I conceive 
less hopes of our present opposition than I did; 
nor am I too severe in my judgment of men. 
When I use the word hope, I would not be under- 
stood to mean that I expect any great benefit to 
my country from this or any opposition; but I 
had a better opinion of some people than I have 
justnow." b With Glover it was always a subject 
of the highest commendation when any man kept 
steady to his principles ; and in praising Waller, 
he says, " hitherto, no man can say but that he 
had continued in opposition to all the enemies of 
his qountry with perseverance and zeal." d 

Junius also declares himself to have dedicated 

■/ 

a Junius, Vol. i. p. *255. 
b Mem. p. 17. c Mem. p. 13. 

d <e A man, who honestly engages in a public cause, must 
prepare himself for events which will at once demand his utmost 
patience, and rouse his warmest indignation." Junius, Vol. u 
/p.*27<5. 



56 

his life to the information of his fellow subjects. * 
Glover took an active part in politics as early as 
the year 1739, and did not cease to direct his 
attention to that object during his whole life ; and 
whether his political opinions were well or ill 
founded, he invariably adhered to them, believing 
them to be right. 

He was intimate with Pitt, which intimacy 
had commenced with their youth, and had con- 
tinued for no inconsiderable part of their lives; 
but Glover acknowleges himself to have an un- 
bending character: " It was now twelve years at 
least since my own reserved behaviour and un- 
pliant principles had kept me remote from this my 
once intimate and most favoured society." b After 
this interval, he says, " The neglect and in- 
difference on my side for the last twelve years 
seemed to have made no impression on him ; and 
the remembrance of his frailties, which had created 
my former disgust, was lost in the expectation 
which all men conceived from his altered principles 
and conduct."' 

Of kings, though necessary to the constitution 
and form of government Junius was attached to, 
he laid this down as a fundamental maxim — " The 
fortune which makes a man a king, forbids him 
to have a friend. It is the law of nature which 

a Vol. ii. p. 307. b Mem. p. 64. 

c Mem. p. 85. 



57 

cannot be violated with impunity. The mistaken 
prince who looks for friendship, will find a 
favourite, and in that favourite the ruin of his 
affairs." a And after the most bitter and reiterated 
abuse of his present majesty, he says, " I would 
willingly hazard my life in defence of your title 
and your crown." a 

Against kings Glover, in his memoirs, is equally 
unsparing of his censure, and unmindful of the 
mode of inforcing his invective. " George II. 
is a weak, narrow, sordid, and unfeeling master, 
only calculated by nature for a pawnbroker's 
shop ;" and again, " he should be made sensible, 
not only that he should not be master, but that he 
should know and feel that he ought not to be so." 
The King of Prussia is a fiend \ and of Princes in 
general, " their actions are not to be judged of by 
the rules of morality, before whose tribunal they 
would be all condemned in their turns, and under- 
go the severest punishment, if executioners were 
not wanting to the laws of nature and of justice; 
and the folly and servility of mankind were not 
the safeguard of Kings." 

a Junius, Vol. ii. p. 88. 

" Look undazzled on the pomp of man 

Most weak, when highest. Then the jealous gods 
Watch to supplant him. They, his paths, his courts, 
His chambers fill with fiatt'rys pois'nous swarms, 
Whose honey'd bane, by kingly pride devour'd, 
Consumes the health of kingdoms." 

Glover's Leonidas, Book IV. 



58 

As an illustration of the character of Glover's 
mind with respect to his best friends when they 
departed from their political principles, I cannot 
give a stronger instance than in the case of 
Lord Cobham. A Nobleman who was not only 
conspicuous as a statesman and a patron of litera- 
ture, but a sincere friend of Glover's, and a great 
admirer of his genius. To this nobleman Glover 
dedicated his Leonidas in these words : 

" I shall now detain the reader no longer than 
to take this public occasion of expressing my sin- 
cere regard for the Lord Viscount Cobham, and the 
sense of my obligations for the early honour of 
his friendship ; to him I inscribe the following 
poem, and therein I shall be justified, independent 
of all personal motives from his Lordship's public 
conduct, so highly distinguished by his disin- 
terested zeal, and unshaken fidelity to his country 
not less in civil life, than in the field : to him 
therefore a poem, founded on a character eminent 
for military glory, and love of liberty, is due 
from the nature of the subject." 

When the interests of the party to which Lord 
Cobham belonged were divided, he was provoked 
at the infamous conduct of those who had left 
him in the minority, and had thoughts of with- 
drawing himself, declaring, with an oath, that he 
would have no further concern with them. Upon 
which, Glover makes these remarks : " But his 
resolution did not hold : the truth is, that Lord 






59 

Cobham, Dodington, and Cotton, had too much 
sense not to" see the weakness of Pelham, of which 
they were sincerely desirous to make an advantage, 
so far as might serve to bring them into power with 
some degree of character; and this they very well 
knew could never be accomplished without obtain- 
ing some terms for the people ; but at the same time 
it was always evident to me, who knew them during 
the whole course of their opposition, long before 
they accepted of employments, and their subse- 
quent conduct has rendered it notorious to all 
mankind, that their first regard was to profit and 
power, that their second was to character, and 
much fainter than the first ; and that their care for 
the public extended no further than to preserve 
some part of their former popularity for a varnish 
to their avarice and ambition." a 

I mention these facts respecting Lord Cob- 
ham, as the more important, because the virulent 
opinion which Junius entertains against Lord 
Townshend would seem to be incompatible with 
Glover's previous commendation of him, were his 
principles not duly weighed and considered ; but 
it must be ever borne in mind, that Glover's 
opinion of men, throughout his whole life, was 
governed by the consistency of their political 
conduct; and even in the character of Lord 
Townshend, in the Memoir, he concludes with a 
gloomy prospective view, that he may have, at some 
a Mem. p. 25, 2(L 






60 

future time, occasion to alter it. " May time, 
which impairs every external grace, produce no 
such change in his virtues, as may ever throw 
upon my pen the melancholy obligation of alter- 
ing this character." 3 

In this analysis there is nothing more remark- 
able than the coincidence of feeling and opinion 
exhibited by Mr. Glover of Lord Chatham, and 
the portrait of the same statesman as exhibited 
throughout the letters of Junius. Glover admired 
his talents, and seemed perfectly well to understand 
their force and influence; at times', strongly attached 
to his measures, but at other times, doubts of his 
sincerity, and censures what he considers a dere- 
liction of principle; and for twelve years he with- 
drew himself from his intimacy from political 
principles alone. b His first co-operation with the 
Pelhams in 1745 is marked by his disapprobation; 
11 Pitt co-operated with the Pelhams in every 
point, and brought himself to a level with the 
Earl of Bath in the public disesteem, not more 
by his votes than by his hot or unguarded ex- 
pressions in parliament; the most indecent of 
which was, a needless encomium on the late Sir 
Robert Walpole, reproaching himself for his op- 
position to him, and professing a veneration for 
his ashes." His advice against any union with 
the Duke of Newcastle is strongly characteristic 

a Mem. p. 53. k Mem. p. 85. 



61 

of his feelings ; and these lines from Horace are 
in the true spirit of Junius — 

Justum et tenacem propositi vlrum 
Non civium ardor prava jubentium, 
Non vultus instantis tyranni, 
Mente quatit soli da 

and with the deepest regret of a noble mind he 
concludes by saying, that if there should be a 
coalition, it would grieve him to see the first man 
in Great Britain a subaltern to the lowest/ 

After Mr. Pitt's repeated professions that he 
would never consent to send any British troops to 
Germany, he at last found good reasons to yield 
to the politics of the king. This was in the latter 
end of the year 1757.; upon which Glover thus 
expresses himself — 

" With such persevering firmness could this 
minister act at a period when the British Parlia- 
ment had bound itself by repeated addresses to 
defend the King's Electoral Dominions; yet, 
when the Electorate had absolved these kingdoms 
from that obligation, and by a convention of its 
own, without any British interposition, had de- 
tached itself from Great Britain or Prussia; this 
very minister, abusing the confidence of a credu- 
lous people, plunged them into an expence of 
blood and treasure unknown to former experience^ 
and beyond the designs, even the ideas of the 
Mem. p. 87. 



62 

most corrupt and daring, whom he has so fre- 
quently, and recently confronted upon the subject 
of continental systems. He was the man on whom 
the public once depended as a check to such ruin- 
ous attempts : he was the man who sacrificed that 
public for the precarious favour of an insincere 
unforgiving old man, tottering on the verge of the 
grave. Troops could be withheld from the Duke of 
Cumberland : his success would be strength to 
Fox. A proposition from the Duke of Newcastle 
would be opposed for that purpose : Newcastle 
would have had all the merit ; and he will have it ; 
and my prophecy to Mr. Pitt in these words, be 
verified, " Then shall I be grieved to see you, the 
first man in Great Britain at this juncture, become 
a subaltern to the lowest." 

Pitt in 1744 " lost all the confidence of 
his friends," by voting with the court party ; 
and appears to have lost Glover's good opinion 
by joining the junta to get into place, and 
was one of those of whom he says, " that 
their first regard was to profit and power, 
and that their second was to character, and much 
fainter than the first;" and he who had been 
among the loud declaimers to bring Lord Orford 
to justice, now disgraced himself by an indecent 
(ind needless encomium on Sir Robert Walpole." 
This unsteadiness of principle so disgusted Glover, 
that when they deserted their principles, he aban- 
doned their society, and his intimacies were thus 






63 

contracted on the public account. Pitt returning 
to office, on true Whig principles, Glover says, 
11 All his past offences were buried in oblivion. 
The love of power and an ardent thirst of fame 
were noble passions — honourable to him and bene- 
ficial to his country, when their views were set in 
comparison with those which accompany the base 
attachment to money, the visible bane of our 
times." When Pitt afterwards negotiated for a 
coalition with the Duke of Newcastle, Glover, 
was again disgusted. And even when he speaks 
of the independence of his actions, he does it 
with the caution of Junius. When Pitt opposed 
the intemperate party-rage against Byng, Glover 
praising the moderation of his conduct, says, it 
was un tinctured with selfishness, wearing the aspect 
at least of justice and humanity. 

In the letters of Junius there is the same ad- 
miration of his powers, and the same sentiment of 
disesteem, when he made his great abilities subser- 
vient to measures which he disapproved. " He 
(Lord Chatham) is indeed a compound of contra- 
dictions." a " I cannot admit that because Mr. Pitt 
was respected and honoured a few years ago, the 
Earl of Chatham therefore deserves to be so now; 
or that a description, which might have suited him 
at one part of his life, must of necessity be the 
only one applicable to him at another. It is 
barely possible that a very honest commoner may 

a Junius, Vol. iii. p. 108. 



64 

become a very corrupt and worthless peer; and I 
am inclined to suspect that Mr. C. D. will find 
but few people credulous enough to believe that 
either Mr. Pitt or Mr. Pulteney, when they ac- 
cepted of a title, did not, by thajt action, betray 
their friends, their country, and in every honour- 
able sense, themselves." a 

In a virulent invective against Lord Bute, he 
says, " It was then his good fortune to corrupt one 
man, from whom we least of all expected so base 
an apostacy. Who indeed could have suspected, 
that it should ever consist with the spirit or under- 
standing of that person to accept of a share of 
power under a pernicious court minion, whom he 
himself had affected to detest or despise, as much 
as he knew he was detested and despised by the 
whole nation ? I will not censure him for the 
avarice of a pension, nor the melancholy am- 
bition of a title. These were objects which he 
perhaps looked up to, though the rest of the world 
.thought them far beneath his acceptance. 1 * 

Junius says in his letter to Wilkes, speaking 
of Lord Chatham, " I have no objection to paying 
him such compliments as carry a condition with 
them, and either bind him fiimly to the cause, or 
become the bitterest reproach to him if he de-* 
sorts it." 

a Junius, Vol. ii. p. 46\. 
*> Junius, Vol. ii. p. 466. 



65 

His celebrated panegyric is guarded by ex* 
pressions, which seem to glance at a comprehensive 
view of his political life, and his praise is even 
tempered with a wary knowledge of his cha- 
racter. — " I confess he has grown upon my 
esteem. " " As for the common sordid views 
of avarice, or any purpose of vulgar ambition, 
I question whether the applause of Junius 
would be of service to Lord Chatham ; but if 
his ambition be upon a level with his under- 
standing ; if he judges of what is truly honour* 
able for himself with the same superior genius 
which animates and directs him to eloquence in 
debate, to wisdom in decision, even the pen of 
Junius shall continue to reward him." a 

It has been remarked that Junius, in many in- 
stances, has the appearance of being conversant 
in military affairs, and this opinion has been 
considered of some weight by those who sup- 
port the pretensions of Lord George Sackville. 
As Mr. Glover once intended to publish the me- 
moirs of his own time, he did not fail to associate 
with military men, and to derive from them all 
the knowledge which he might require on that 
subject. By Townshend he was supplied with 
the most authentic information as to all the mili- 
tary transactions in America, in which hehad a 
command. And his Memoir contains a succinct 
though comprehensive view of the seven years 

a Junius, Vol. II. p. 310. 
F 



66 

war, which sufficiently accounts for whatever of 
a mill cdry air some of the letters of Junius may 
exhibit. 

As, in many of the letters of Junius, there is 
a smattering of legal knowledge, independent of 
his celebrated letter to Lord Mansfield, on bail, 
on the importance of which, there are different 
opinions, as to the legal pretensions of the au- 
thor, 3 it may be mentioned as a biographical 
fact, that Glover's maternal uncle was a Lord 
Chancellor of Ireland, b and that he was himself 

a " The power of the King, Lords, and Commons, is not an 
arbitrary power. They are the trustees, not the owners of the 
estate." The fee simple is in TJ S . This legal opinion does not 
strengthen the belief that Junius was an eminent lawyer by pro- 
fession. — Junius, Vol i. p. 5. — Dedication to his letters. 

h The Right Hon. Richard West, was the eldest son of Richard 
West, a merchant of the city of London, or perhaps, as he more 
correctly styles himself, heir apparent. He entered a student of 
the Inner Temple, June 23, 1/08, and died 1 727, at 36 years Of 
age, leaving an only son, Richard, well known as an elegant scholar 
and poet, and the familiar associate of Horace Walpole and Gray. 

Richard Glover, the surviving son of Leonidas Glover, pre- 
sented a portrait of this lord chancellor West, to the Inner Temple, 
where it now is in the Hall, with this inscription on a tablet 
making a part of the frame — 

" The portrait of the Right Hon. Richard West, 
Lord High Chancellor of Ireland. 

He was the maternal uncle of the late Richard Glover Esq. who 
represented the borough of Weymouth, in Parliament ; the father 
of Richard Glover, Esq member for Penryn, who has the honour 
to present it to the society of the Inner Temple, where his Lordship 



67 

originally intended for the profession of the law. 
These circumstances may have had some influence 
on his subsequent education and habits of study, 
and in his Memoir there are instances which 
favour this opinion/ 

It is remarkable that there is no life of Mr. 
Glover, except a short account of him which ap- 
peared soon after his death, in the European 
Magazine, for Jan. 1786, written by Mr. Isaac 
Reed, to which is appended a panegyric, by Dr. 
Brocklesby, Mr. Glover's intimate friend. This 
account has been reprinted by Mr. Alexander 
Chalmers in his edition of the English Poets, 1810, 
and augmented, principally, by a more ample cri- 
ticism of Mr. Glover's Poems, and some facts 
respecting him, derived from Dr. Warton. But 
the character of the man, as an individual, or as a 
politician, have now passed into oblivion. 

studied and qualified himself for that distinguished station/ which 
he afterwards attained. 

" His Lordship was appointed Lord Chancellor of Ireland, in 
the reign of George the First, in ] 725 ; he died holding that high 
office but two years, at the early age of 36, in the year 1727." 

This Lord Chancellor wrote on treasons and bills of attainder, 
and also on the manner of creating peers. 

a See Addenda, p. 93. 



F2 



68 



That the resemblance of thought and expression in 
the Memoir to the Letters of Junius, may be 
presented to the reader at one view, the following 
extracts are selected as the most remarkable. 

Glover speaking of the Duke of Argyle, says, 
that " he was in his own person a most shameless 
prostitute to power, and extremely avaricious : he 
indeed would sell nothing, but himself, which he 
continually did with every circumstance of levity, 
weakness, and even treachery." 

In his letter to Lord Chesterfield ; which con- 
cludes thus — 

" And all this time you are wasting away in so 
fruitless a manner, France runs no risque, &c. 
Then, what step must England take next, in a con- 
dition so much weaker and more exhausted than 
before? Then, my Lord, consider at whose door 
will the unpopularity of this measure fall?" a 

" During the course of this year 1744, the 
leaders of the opposition who had differed among 
themselves so widely the year before, were now 
once more re-united upon one principle, which 
was, to get into place." 

In this year when Pelham offered to concur 
with the opposition in a more effectual place-bill, 
Glover makes these reflections upon his conduct, 
as the opinion of Waller and himself. 
a Mem. p. 15. 



69 

" Waller ascribed this condescension to very 
notorious and obvious reasons, incapacity, and 
pusillanimity; not that his mean heart entertained 
the least spark of compunction for the public, but 
merely that he might sit easy in power, and 
shelter his inability against the weight of Waller's 
talents and experience, the virulent eloquence or 
Pitt, the party strength of Gower and Cotton 
among the tories, the keen and lively parts of 
Cobham, and the industry and social arts of Dod- 
ington; all which, united upon honest and dis- 
interested views for their country, must have 
speedily rendered the opposition not only formi- 
dable, but dangerous to Pelham: such, however, 
was the prostitution of Bedford, 8 Chesterfield, 

a Prostitution of Bedford. Junius, in describing what this 
Duke of Bedford ought to be, says, " Your Grace may probably 
discover something more intelligible in the negative part of this 
illustrious character. The man I have described would never 
prostitute his dignity in parliament by an indecent violence, 
either in opposing or defending a minister." Junius, Vol. I. 
p. 235. 

Prostitution is a favourite word with Junius, and it is used in 
the same sense, with the same feeling, in the Memoir. " Lord 
Hardwicke, masking his own prostitution and servility under reli- 
gious cant and hypocrisy." Mem. p. 55. If he (the King) has 
any regard for his own honour, he will disdain to be any longer 
connected with such abandoned prostitution Junius, Vol. II. 
p. 220. " There are degrees in all private vices. — Why not in 
public prostitution?" — Does it follow, that every House of Com- 
mons will plunge at once into uie lowest depths of prostitution ? 
Vol. II. p. 223. tf There is no act of arbitrary power which the 



70 

Gower, Pitt, and Lyttelton, a 1 party founded on 
the base desire of pecuniary emoluments, partly 
on the more extensive views of procuring the 
whole ministerial power to themselves, that they 
peremptorily insisted on coming into employment 
without any stipulations whatever." a 

king might not attribute to necessity, and for which he would 
not be secure of obtaining the approbatiou of his prostituted lords 
and commons." Vol. II. p. 362. Glover says, " but that merit 
so endearing to Mr. Viner and his friends, served but to weaken 
Mr. Pitt still more with the court and its prostituted instruments 
the two houses of parliament." "I protest, my Lord, there is in this 
young man's conduct (the King) a strain of prostitution, which, for 
its singularity, I cannot but admire." Vol. II. p. 155. " The present 
House of Commons have injured themselves by a too early and 
public profession of their principles, and if a strain of prostitution, 
which had no example, were within the reach of emulation, it 
might be imprudent to hazard the experiment too soon." Vol. II. 
p. 211. " He (the King) thought he had found a creature pros- 
tituted to his service." Vol. I. p. 147. Glover says, the Duke of 
Argyle fc was in his own person a most shameless prostitute to 
power." Mem. p. Q. Glover exerted all his power and influence 
in 1739, to prevent Sir George Champion succeeding to the 
Mayoralty of the City, and his exertions were attended with suc- 
cess j Junius was equally interested to set aside Nash in 1771. 
<( The shameful mismanagement, which brought him into office, 
gave me the rirst and unconquerable disgust What an abandoned 
prostituted idiot is your Lord Mayor." Junius, Vol. I. p. *250. 

Glover says, " I must here observe, that if any one of these 
five may be distinguished from the rest as the most prostitute and 
eager to get into power and employment,* it was the Earl of 
rbesterfield." Mem. p 24. 

- ; Mem. p. 24, 



71 

" Waller was ever averse to this negotiation, 
having no confidence in Pelham, despising his 
narrow understanding and abject spirit, and de- 
testing his mean equivocating temper." b 

" When the situation of Ministers, in 1745, 
made it necessary for the king to give Mr. Pitt an 
appointment, Glover says, " Disinterested motives, 
and an object of public advantage extorted from 
the Crown, would have rendered the measure 
illustrious to all posterity; but the motives were 
selfish, the object was power: this conduct there- 
fore of the Pelhams was ungrateful towards a 
Prince ever profitable to them, and factious to- 
wards the State, which they never had served 
either ably or vigilantly, nor meant to serve in 
this instance : their single aim was to annihilate 
all rivalship, and establish an unbounded authority 
over a weak, narrow, sordid, and unfeeling master, 
whp, seated by fortune on a throne, was calculated 
by nature for a pawnbroker's shop, and was easily 
reconciled to a set of men willing and able to 
gratify his low avarice ; in his ideas, a sufficient 
compensation for the sacrifice he made them, of 
his resentments, and his prerogative. Hating Mr. 
Pitt, he preferred him: the ministers, who had 
hurled back his favours in his face, he restored 
not only to employment, but to his confidence, 
and the sole power of three kingdoms : among 
so great a number, Lord Harrington was the only 

b Mem. p. 18. 



one he did not forgive, and whom he was per- 
mitted to disgrace. Pitt co-operated with the 
Pelhams in every point, and brought himself to a 
level a with the Earl of Bath in the public dises- 
teem, not more by his votes, than by his hot and 
unguarded expressions in Parliament; the most 
indecent of which was, a needless encomium on 
the late Sir Robert Walpole, reproaching himself 
for his opposition to him, and professing a vene- 
ration for his ashes. 

" I write as I think ; I deliver facts as they 
fall under my own observation; my reflections 
are dispassionate, thus far at least, that I have 
conceived no prejudice against any person named 
jn these Memorials, from any disobligation to 
myself: far otherwise; I had intimacies to a de- 
gree of friendship with most of them ; but as 
those intimacies were contracted on the public 
account, when that cause was deserted by them, 
their society was abandoned by me." b 

When France was invaded by the King of 
Prussia. " France in distress, bribes the King 
of Prussia, who, in defiance of the late treaty of 
Breslaw, invades the Austrian dominions a second 
time, commits the most inhuman acts of devasta- 

a ff The ministry indeed have no share in the change, and it 
would be uncandid not to confess that their regard for the honour 
and interest of this country is upon the same level with their 
friendship for Mr. Grenville." Junius, Vol. iii. p. 84. 
b Mem. p. 32. 



73 

tion, compels the Queen to recall her army for 
her own protection, and thus relieves, if not pre- 
serves, the inveterate foe of Europe. I judge 
not of princes by the rules of morality, before 
whose tribunal they would all be condemned in 
their turns, and undergo the severest punishment, 
if executioners were not wanting to the laws of 
nature and of justice, and the folly and servility 
of mankind were not the safeguards of kings. I 
make this reflection, as I pass, merely for its 
truth. The indignation and hatred of the King 
and people of England, survived in abuse and 
execrations on the King of Prussia, till 1755; 
when, on a sudden, that fiend became the bright- 
est of beings, and the admired Queen of Hungary 
detestable ; yet the truth of my reflections re- 
mains, in this case, on as permanent foundations 
as before." 3 

" I am now in the 46th year of my age; the 
ardour of youth is abated ; the mind grown 
stronger by experience, familiar with ill-fortune 
both to myself and my country, guarded against 
the delusion of popularity, and above the pride 
resulting from the occasional countenance and un- 
sought confidence of men in high station, of which 
I propose to make no further use, than to delineate 
with accuracy and truth the causes of this nation's 
fall, which my ill-boding judgment foresees to be 
inevitable. 

a Mem. p. 35. 



74 

" To paint folly in the various shades and co- 
lours of hope and fear, of exultation, dejection, 
resentment, and rage, in a vain, dissolute, and re- 
fractory people, presuming still on an imaginary 
superiority, yet obstinately blind to its own de- 
fects and weakness; to describe subjects without 
subordination, laws uninforced, magistrates with- 
out authority, fleets and armies without discipline 
in the midst of an unsuccessful war ; to set forth 
the supineness of an effeminate gentry, the cor- 
ruption of a servile and dependant senate, the igno- 
rance, incapacity, timidity, rashness, pride, and 
ambition, holding sway by turns at some periods, 
at others jarring and encountering to the utter 
confusion of Administration, under a doting, 
mean, spiritless, covetous, prejudiced, undiscern- 
ing Prince, whose decisions, like those of chaos, 
serve but to embroil the fray; to display a scene 
of this nature, and know it to be a representation 
of the land one inhabits, at the same time to ex- 
hibit truth pure and untinctured by passion, re- 
quires that unconcern which despair alone can 
produce in the human mind. It is enough to 
have lamented, and beyond the means of a private 
station, to have opposed the impending calamity; 
when the measure of popular vices and follies is 
full, and co-operating with selfish and ambitious 
rulers renders a nation contemptible, an honest 
individual who can assuage his aching heart with 



75 

indifference, may stand justified not less to his 
own conscience, than to the unmeriting herd."* 

" The King and his Minister only were pacific, 
not through knowledge and judgment, but from 
perplexity and cowardice. The same unmanly 
spirit, which preferring peace through fear, could 
be hurried by the public impetuosity into a war, 
must naturally begin and conduct it with irreso- 
lution and tameness." b 

"I met Mr. Pitt at Mr. Dodingtori's; the 
Grenville's his relations, whom I had long known, 
full of family disgusts against him, now repaired 
to his house after an interval of many years: and 
had his nature been capable of consistency, and 
common prudence directed his only pursuit, a 
profitable place, he might with their support and 
foundation, his own social accomplishments, wit, 
plausibility, literature, and long experience in the 
forms of public business, have stood an eminent 
character in times like these, so destitute of great 
men. All these qualifications, with the addition 
of elegance, magnificence and wealth, wanting 
judgment and discretion, could not protect his 
old age from ridicule and neglect. So necessary 
is firmness and uniformity of conduct, to procure 
even from the imperfect part of mankind, the 

a Mem. p. 3g —41 . b Mem. p. 43. 



76 

confidence requisite to maintain the unworthy 
pre-eminence among them." a 

" During the whole sessions Mr. Pitt found 
occasion in every debate to confound the minis- 
terial orators ; his vehement invectives were aw- 
ful to Murray, terrible to Hume Campbell ; and 
no malefactor under the stripes of an executioner 
was ever more forlorn aud helpless than Fox ap- 
peared under the lash of Pitt's eloquence, shrewd 
and able in Parliament as he confessedly is : Do- 
dington sheltered himself in silence." b 

When Mr. Pitt was taken into Administration 
the second time. 

"The eyes of an afflicted, despairing nation 
were now lifted up to a private gentleman of a 
slender fortune, wanting the parade of birth or 
title, of no family alliance, but by his marriage 
with Lord Temple's sister, and even confined to a 
narrow circle of friends and acquaintance. Under 
these circumstances Pitt was considered as the 
only saviour of England. True was it, that in the 
lucrative office of paymaster to the army his con- 
duct had been clear and disinterested. All past 
offences were buried in oblivion. The love of 
power, and an ardent thirst for fame, were noble 
passions, honourable to him, and beneficial to his 

a Mem. p. 48. b Mem. p. 51. 

c Junius speaks with this same feeling of title and rank, see 
Vol. I p. *290, and *320, Vol. iii. p. 317. 



77 

country, when their views were set in comparison 
with those which accompany the base attachment 
to money, the visible bane of our times. His 
good sense and spirit must surely discover, that 
neither power, nor fame, can be permanent with- 
out the foundation of virtue. His friends and 
relations shared in the public prepossession, the 
public overlooking their imperfections, and zea- 
lously promulgating their good qualities. Riot 
and intemperance, or the dissipation of time in 
idle pleasures, composed no part of their charac- 
ters. Under Pitt they must be capable and useful 
in public employment." 3 

Of Mr. Pitt's administration great expecta- 
tions were formed. 

" The Prince of Wales and his Court, the 
powerful City of London, the majority of the 
Clergy, Law and Army, together with the whole 
populace, cordially and full of hope, co-operated 
in this signal event. 

" The only discontented, were the King and 
both Houses of Parliament ; the first grossly re- 
taining his ancient prejudices, the two last dread- 
ing a change, which might lessen the price of 
corruption." 6 

In the case of Admiral Byng, Mr. Pitt, in the 

a Mem, p. 62. b Mem. p. 72. 



78 

House of Commons, said, that he desired justice 
might be done with due deliberation. 

" This modest use of a privilege common to 
all, thinking for himself, and thus producing his 
thoughts, at once threw down the image of public 
adoration, polluted and defaced by the despicable 
hands which had raised it : Pitt became hateful to 
the people of Great Britain, like Anson, like Fox, 
orByng."* 

" The whole concluded in the criminal's b exe- 
cution. His trial is in print. Whether it fur- 
nishes evidence to prove the cowardice of which 
he stands acquitted in his sentence, or the negli- 
gence for which he is condemned by implication, 
or whether his not having done his utmost, sim- 
ply and independently of any criminal motive 
assigned, be a capital offence existing in the law, 
or merely in the empty heads of his judges, are 
points which I leave to the decision of unpre- 
judiced posterity. 

" On the 14th of March Byng was shot, memo- 
rable only in his fall; innocent or guilty, equally 
the occasion of dishonour to his countrymen; 
whether we consider their intemperate rage, arti- 
ficially fomented by the more guilty against him, 
unheard and untried, or their more unmanly and 
petulant levity towards titt, for an act of mode- 
ration untinctured with selfishness, and wearing 

a Mem, p. SI. b Admiral Byng. 



79 

the aspect at least of justice and humanity. It is 
to shew so strong an instance of a fickle and 
worthless people, that I have dwelt so long on 
this subject." a 

" Supposing Newcastle sincere, is his compo- 
sition stern enough for such encounters? But, 
knowing him false, selfish, and insatiable of 
power, will he not rather make his own way, and 
re-establish himself in the King's favour by every 
servile gratification of his will? Then shall I be 
grieved to see you, the first man in Great Bri 
tain, at this juncture, become a subaltern to the 
lowest Sir, you are governed by a noble prin- 
ciple, the love of fame ; do not hazard that glo- 
rious acquisition on such precarious ground. As 
you are the only object in the nation's eye, every 
wrong measure, every miscarriage will be imputed 
to you. You may say you can but quit your situ- 
ation again: true; but are you sure of returning 
to the same situation of character and importance 
which you now possess? Necessity brought you 
in, the last time; you soon found there was no 
raising an edifice without materials ; the materials 
cannot exist, till calamity has utterly changed the 
temper, manners, and principles of the whole 
nation." b 

" Fox, sinking under the weight of national 
calamity and universal indignation, resigned his 
employment. The Duke of Newcastle, the most 

a Mem. p. 82. b Mem. p. 87. 



80 

trifling* and incapable, yet of all men the most 
ambitious, struggling to the last for the continu- 
ance of power, offers the seals first to Lord 
Halifax, then to the Earl of Egmont. Them, he 
finds as averse to enter a falling edifice as Fox 
was to remain there. At length he applied to Pitt 
'through the channel of Lord Hardwicke, who 
presents a carte blanche for the admission of him 
and his friends into the highest employments of 
State under the Duke. Pitt, with a haughtiness 
confounding the meanness of Hardwicke, rejects 
the proposition, and disdains all union of actions 
or counsels with Newcastle. Thus driven to 
despair, that Minister resigns his employments 
likewise, leaving his master naked and helpless 
like himself." 51 

To these quotations may be added the follow-, 
ing extracts in chronological order, from docu- 
ments, printed by Mr. Glover himself, by which 
the uniform character of his mind may be seen for 
upwards of thirty years, and that character in 
the spirit of Junius. 

Before the House of Commons in behalf of the Mer- 
chants of London, he thus addresses himself to the 
Speaker. 

"Sir, 
174 3 After the many grievances already 

enumerated, to tell the Committee that 

* Mem. p. 60. 



81 

the heaviest is yet behind, will perhaps awakeis 
their astonishment, and, I humbly hope, bespeak 
their patience a little longer. However cons^ 
xlerable, however meritorious to the public the 
mercantile interest of Great Britain may appear at 
this bar; whatever degree of indulgence and re- 
gard the merchants may have found from this 
great assembly, in other places they have severely 
experienced that they were deemed unworthy of 
the public concern: their complaints have been 
received with indifference, and their misfortunes 
imbittered with insult and scorn. — ■- — ■ 

" Have public representations been made from our 
Northern Colonies, that their coast was neglected 
and defenceless? was the least remedy applied to 
the evil? or does it appear that the commanders, 
the most notoriously guilty of neglect, have met 
with the least rebuke? Has murder been com- 
mitted in the arbitrary impressing of men, the law r 
violated, and the civil magistrate set at defiance? 
Was a regular complaint preferred against this 
proceeding? What reparation has been made? or 
in what manner has justice been satisfied? The law 
underwent -a second violation from the military 
power, the murderers were acquitted by a mock 
trial in a court-martial, who might have been con- 
demned in a court of justice, and are at this hour 
liable to be tried for wilful murder." 



82 

Addressing the livery of London, 

" Permit me now to remind you, tha.1 
when placed by these means in a light not 
altogether unfavourable, no lucrative reward was 
then the object of my pursuit; nor ever did the 
promises or offers of private emolument induce 
me to quit my independence, or vary from the 
least of my former professions, which always 
were, and remain still founded on the principles 
of universal liberty; principles which I assume 
the glory to have established on your records. 
Your sense, Liverymen of London, the sense of 
your great corporation, so repeatedly recom- 
mended to your representatives in parliament, 
were my sense, and the principal boast of all my 
compositions, containing matter imbibed in my 
earliest education, to which I have always ad- 
hered, by which I still abide, and which I will 
endeavour to bear down with me to the grave. 

On the impolicy of direct taxation in America, before 
the House of Commons, address'mg the Speaker. 

"Sir, I foresee, these diffesences with 
* America will be composed, and how — Here, 
silence becomes me best. — It will be so late, that 
Great Britain must receive a wound, which no 
time can heal — A philosophical sense of dignity 
must step in under the shape of consolation/' 

In the course of this investigation I have not 
thought it necessary to increase my pamphlet by 



83 



quotations from Glover's epic and dramatic poems, 
as they are in the hands of every one ; and those 
who are interested in this question may with the 
greatest facility refer to such passages as are fa- 
vourable or adverse to the present hypothesis.*— 
Although I have only produced presumptive evi- 
dence that the author of the Memoirs was the same 
person known under the signature of Junius ; I have 
at least described a person who at once had the 
information requisite for such a character, the 
tone of feeling, the political opinions, and the 
power of expressing those opinions, together with 
the necessary locality of Junius: and whatever 
may be the result of this inquiry, I trust it will 
be obvious, that hitherto no pains has been taken 
to discover the real author, when such a man as 
Glover, quite independent of the Memoir, has 
never been named. A man who through the whole 
of an active life was deemed by the tories an en- 
thusiastic patriot, and never swerved from his prin- 
ciples. In the year 1739 he was the most popular 
man in the city, and by his influence, zeal, and 
eloquence, Sir George Champion was set aside from 
succeeding to the mayoralty. (Junius was not less 
interested to set Alderman Nash aside in 177 1.) 

a A tyrant humbled, and by virtue's death 
To seal my country's freedom, is a good 
Surpassing all his boasted pow'r can give. 

Glover s Leonid&s, 
Such passages might be quoted at the pleasure of the reader- 

o c 2 



84 

In the year 1745, Horace Walpole, writing to 
Lord II. Seymour Conway, sneers at Glover's city 
eloquence: — " I can't but think we were at least as 
happy and as great when all the young Pitts and 
Lytteltons were pelting oratory at my father for 
rolling out a twenty years peace, and not envying 
the trophies which he passed by every day in West- 
minster Hall. But one must not repine; rather 
reflect on the glories which they have drove the 
nation headlong into. One must think all our 
distresses and dangers well laid out when they have 
purchased us Glover's oration for the merchants; 
the Admiralty for the Duke of Bedford; and the 
reversion of secretary at war for Pitt." In the 
year 1754 Davies, when speaking of his Boadicea, 
says of the author, " But his poetical fame, though 
great, was inferior to his character as a patriot and a 
true lover of his country." In the year 1760, 
Dodington speaks with anxious interest, that he 
may be attached to his party. " Glover has not 
determined about political connexions, but, I be- 
lieve, he will come to us.'' From 17ol to 176*8 he 
was in Parliament, always steady to his principles j 
and is said to have made some eloquent speeches 
in the House. In 1773 Mr, Woodfall declared to 
Junius that he knew only one man who could in- 
fluence his vote, and that was Mr. Glover: and in 
the year 1775 he was seen at the Bar of the House 
of Commons, holding the same language and opi- 
nions, and exerting himself wifii the same zeal as 



85 

Had marked his progress through every stage of 
his political life. 

With respect to the Memoir and the Letters of 
Junius, what is most strikingly remarkable be- 
tween them, is the intellectual character which 
both exhibit, being purely the result of self con- 
viction; not. biassed by the prejudices, not influ- 
enced by the predilections of others. There is 
throughout the- whole of these works the solitary 
feeling of a man wrapped up in the perfect confi- 
dence of himself, wholly trusting to his own re- 
sources, unmindful of opinion, and regardless of 
every consideration but the independent principles 
of his own niind. Junius proclaims his thoughts 
from an unknown obscurity, and gives them the 
unbounded force of invective declamation ; Glo 
ver writes the same thoughts to unburthen his 
mind in the closet, and they are concealed from 
the public because he has no means of giving 
them to the world, to be understood with the 
same purity of intention as they were written. 
Junius and Glover both praise and blame from 
themselves with the same political views; and 
whether right or wrong, they never echo other 
men's opinions, nor give the sentiments of a party, 
nor the dogmas of a faction. 

As the Editor of this pamphlet will, very pro- 
bably, never again intrude this subject upon the 
public, he cannot forbear reminding the reader to 



86 

consider the political character of Mr. Glover in a 
general and comprehensive view. 

He commenced his attachment to the Prince 
of Wales at nineteen years of age, when he was 
regarded as of his party, patronized by him as a 
man of genius, and received by him as a political 
friend. The Prince continuing in opposition to 
what were deemed tory politics, Glover continued 
attached to him for twenty years, till his death : 
and afterwards retained the same principles in op- 
position to the King, on the whole, including a 
space of time, of unchanged, and unwavering poli- 
tical conduct, for twenty-nine years. 

Here it is proper to advert to the manner 
which Glover expresses himself of this King in 
the retirement of his closet/ when he endeavours 
to " delineate with accuracy and truth the causes 
of this nation's fall," as he declares, untinctured 
with personal prejudice. 

At the accession of his present Majesty, Glover 
hailed the young King with rapturous hopes, but 
they were no sooner formed, than disappointed ; 
and, incompetent and vicious ministers, according 
to his views, recalled to his mind the power of 
"Walpole and the reign of the Pelhams, and till he 
ceased to have any political influence, he consi- 
dered this nation to be on the eve of ruin. 

* See Mem. p. 32. 40. 66. and Addenda, p 1 14. 



87 

Junius, at the accession, flattered himself with 
the bright prospect of future events, but, disap- 
pointed, like Glover, is equally steady in his 
hostility to those who were in opposition to his 
patriotism, and like him, professing to have no 
personal hatred, indulges in the same unqualified 
invective against George the Third and his minis- 
ters, as Glover employs against George the Second, 
zwdprofessedly from the same motives. 

Of Mr. Glover's poetical compositions it ought 
not to be forgotten, that Leonidas itself was written 
to rouse, as the author imagined, an oppressed 
and enslaved people to the vindication of their 
rights ; and this in some measure accounts for its 
unexampled popularity at the time it was pub- 
lished/ and for its subsequent neglect. 

* *' Nothing else was read or talked of at Leicester House." 

Dr. War ton. 

It went through five or six editions rapidly, and in Ireland 
Swift inquires of Pope, " Pray who is that Mr. Glover, who writ 
the epic poem called Leonidas, which is reprinted here, and hath 
much vogue ?" 

Lord Lyttelton praised this poem in the highest terms, not only 
for its poetical beauties, but its political tendency : " the whole 
plan and purpose of it being to shew the superiority of freedom 
over slavery} and how much virtue, public spirit, and the love of 
liberty are preferable both in their nature and effects, to riches, 
luxury, and the insolence of power." 

Glover's Progress of Commerce and his Hosier's Ghost, are. 
both political compositions, written with a view to stimulate the 
nation at that time to resent the conduct of the Spaniards. 

Of Hosier's Ghost, some iaea of its popularity may be formed 



89 

Dr. Brocklesby, who was Glover's intimate 
friend, has left this record of his esteem. 

" He lived as if he had been bred a disciple of 
Socrates, or companion of Aristides. Hence his 
political turn of mind, hence his unwarped affec- 
tion and active zeal for the rights and liberties, of 
his country. — Hence his heartfelt exultation when- 
ever he had to paint the impious designs of tyrants 
in ancient times frustrated, or in modern, defeated 
in their nefarious purposes to extirpate liberty, or 
to trample on the unalienable rights of man, how- 
ever remote in time or space from his immediate 
presence. In a few words, for the extent of his 
various erudition, for his unalloyed patriotism, 
and for his daily exercise and constant practice of 
Xenophon's philosophy, in his private as well a* 
in public life, Mr. Glover has left none his equal 
in the city, and some time it is feared may elapse 
before such another citizen may arise, with elo- 
quence, with character, and with poetry, like his, 
to assert their rights, or to vindicate with equal 
powers the just claims of free born men." 

by this remark of Horace Walpole, in a letter to the Hon. Henry 
Seymour Conway : " As to Hosier's Ghost, I think it very easy, 
and consequently pretty; but from the ease, should never have 
guessed it Glover's. I delight in you» the patriots cry it up, and 
ike courtiers cry it down, and th-e hawkers cry it u£ and down" 



ADDENDA. 



91 



Extracts from the original Memoir as addi- 
tional testimony in favour of the opinions 
contained in the preceding pages. 

At the commencement of the year 1757- 

" After the expectation raised by the preceding 
pages, it is scarcely credible to myself, that, while 
endeavouring to recapitulate the transactions of 
this interesting sessions, I should find them all 
within the old narrow circle, trite, trifling, and 
iniquitous, except one absurd deviation from the 
plain track of borrowing money for the annual 
supplies, were an affectation of doing better than 
well, ended in disappointment and disgrace. 

"Sir John Barnard was the Director, now 
grown old, yet less debilitated in body than in 
mind. He stole from a poor half-witted zealot, 
Henriques, his gambling scheme of a guinea- 
lottery, and prevailed, to establish in effect, a 
gaming-table in every county, under the sanction 
of government, which held the fallacious box; 
that unlaxed indigence might be gulled into a 
contribution, when property only should pay to 
the public. This lottery consisted of a million of 
tickets ; and out of the million of guineas sub- 
scribed 550,0001. was to remain with the govern- 
ment, and 550,0001. in prizes among the ad- 
venturers. The next, was a scheme of raising 



92 

2,500,0001. by annuities for lives with a benefit of* 
survivorship. I declared to the principal persons 
in power my utter dislike, and even contempt, of 
both these projects/ The lottery was kept open 
for six or seven months, and was not half filled at 
last. The sums subscribed to the life-annuities 
did not exceed an eighth part of the whole. 

" Fifty-five thousand seamen and marines, 
49,749 landsmen for Great Britain, Guernsey, and 
Jersey were voted, and proper care taken to re- 
lieve the distressed Hanoverians and Hessians, 
who were re-embarked for their own country in 
the spring agreeably to the king's necessities and 
orio*inal design. These were matters of course : 
not one new measure of consequence was accom- 
plished by the new ministry in parliament ; it is 
true, the servile majority was against them; b their 
leader Mr* Pitt, a great part of the time was re- 
strained, by his indisposition, from attending the 
House ; it may be urged, that from the certainty 
of losing every question," nothing could be done 
by them ; but it is as certain that nothing of im- 
portance was attempted, but by Colonel Towns- 
hend; in those gallant attempts Pitt should have 

» See Letters of Junius on Lord North's genius for finance, 
Vol. i. p. 52, and Vol. ii. p. 148. Edit. 

* Junius always speaks of the Parliament as possessing a limited 
authority, Vol. i. p. *287, *289, 191, &c. and censures it's act* 
with the same freedom when the decision of the majority was at 
variance with his opinion. Edit, 



93 

been the principal, or left a second part to him 
who was altogether pliant and subservient He 
pressed the militia in behalf of his country, Pitt 
espoused it for the sake of popularity ; it was 
contrived, however, to mortify its noble parent 
by reducing the numbers to about 30,000, not 
one half of the old bill, and changing the training- 
day from the Sunday to the Monday, for which 
purpose the bishops, and the cheap-bought tools 
among the dissenting clergy, were effectually em- 
ployed, and for whose tender consciences Mr. 
Pitt expressed a tender concern. In fine, the 
bill passed modelled to the sense and relish of such, 
court sycophants as Hardwicke. — « 

" The inquiry into the loss of Minorca was be- 
gun, and prosecuted with equal activity, diligence, 
and integrity by the same gentleman, unassisted 
by any but Mr. Waller and myself, I never left 
him, examined, and digested all the evidence for 
him, and am a witness to his undiscouraged assi- 
duity in comparing my collection of the evidence 
with his own, and with the original documents, 
transcribing every particular with their proper re- 
ferences in his own hand, and imprinting in his 
mind both method and matter; no Brief, though 
less comprehensive than his, was ever more ac- 
curately arranged, and no pleader more com- 
pletely prepared. — 

" This subject must be interrupted, as some 
facts must be traced back, and anecdotes revealed, 
preparatory to the great change which took place 



94 

m the midst of the sessions, and several days be- 
fore the opening of the inquiry. 

" The king's unalterable aversion to his new- 
servants was notorious, from the cold and slight- 
ing reception he gave them on their kissing his 
hand. Awed by the spirit of Mr. Pitt, the King 
did not break the forms of civility to him. To 
his counsels he would grant a patient ear, but his 
heart, still in the hands of others, was unsuscep- 
tible of impression. Legge, who had refused to 
sign the warrant for the first quarter of the 
Hessian subsidy, and Dr. Hay, who had formerly 
been made King's advocate, but had frustrated the 
Duke of Newcastle's expectations of him, were 
both sinners not to be forgiven. Earl Temple 
was the most hated of all : he, against his own 
inclination, was put at the head of the Admiralty, 
and was obliged to transact with the King and 
the Duke of Cumberland all Pitt's business during 
his frequent indispositions, which rendered him 
incapable of personal attendance. His life was 
truly intolerable. His whole intercourse with the 
Duke of Cumberland consisted in reiteration to 
obtain for an American expedition the troops, 
which, after so much difficulty, were extorted at 
last, and were short of the number proposed. In 
the cabinet, whither this double duty of minister 
for the time, and at the head of the admiralty 
continually led him, he experienced nothing but 
insults and ill manners. Temple seldom failed to 
express a manly and noble resentment on these 
occasions, and thereby rendered himself the more 



95 

obnoxious. His demeanour in office was frank, 
ingenuous, unaffecting, and obliging to all, whether 
applying for his favour, or assisting him with ad- 
vice and intelligence. Thus stood the new ad- 
ministration at court 

" In the House of Commons the first who ap- 
peared against them were Fox and Lord Egmont. 
Soon after the meeting, when Mr. Grenville had 
made a motion to quarter the foreign troops during 
their stay in England, these gentlemen took occa- 
sion to inveigh against the measure of sending 
such a force out of the country before our own 
troops were complete. Grenville, who supplied 
the place of Pitt, made answer, that there was a 
•necessity for sending those troops back, inti- 
mating, that they were wanted, by the king, 
abroad. Lord Egmont, with a sneer, signified his 
wish, that no question might be put, because he 
was unwilling that it should go against the ad- 
ministration by a great majority. It is certain if 
a motion had been made to address his Majesty 
for the further detention of the foreign forces, it 
would have been carried against the administration. 
For my own part, I wish it had been made and 
carried, that the House might have undergone the 
mortification of the King's positive refusal. Ano- 
ther small opposition was formed to a very rational 
step of Mr. Pitt, the raising two regiments in the 
Highlands, and transporting them to North Ame- 
rica under the command of Mr. Montgomery 



96 

and the master of Lovat, both men of character 
here, and of interest in Scotland. The Duke of 
Cumberland, who cared little for America, threw 
all the obstacles he could in the way, and when 
he could not succeed in defeating the project, re- 
fused to give the commanders the rank they were 
entitled to, and, instead of colonels-commandant, 
would make them no more than lieutenant-colonels. 
Montgomery told me, that the duke refused the 
assistance of some old Serjeants and corporals to 
train the men, and that a considerable time was 
spent before their arms could be procured from 
the Tower. 

" Not three months were now elapsed since 
the meeting of parliament, when it became ap- 
parent to the public, that the complexion of the 
King, Lords, and Commons, was so unfavourable 
to Mr. Pitt, that he was understood by all, to be 
only a nominal minister without a grain of' power, 
which he confirmed in those very words by a 
declaration in the House. His bodily infirmities, 
together with these provocations, added peevish- 
ness to pride, and, growing daily more inaccessible 
and reserved, he rather lost, than gained ad- 
herents. On one occasion he ran the hazard of 
being deserted by all the country gentlemen, 
hitherto his warmest friends, and to whom he 
had made some court. 

" It was about the middle of February when 
lie had resqlved to move for a vote of 200,0001. to 



97 

assist his Majesty in forming an army of observa- 
tion, &c, and towards enabling him to fulfil his 
engagement with the King of Prussia, &c. ; this 
he determined without condescending to consult 
the country first ; or even Colonel Townshend. 
I chanced to visit that gentleman on the eve of 
this intended motion. I found him much discon- 
certed and displeased ; he told me this particular, 
and that all his friends took it most unkindly of 
Mr. Pitt. I soon perceived that the word unkind 
was used in a sense much stronger than its na- 
tural meaning. Mr. Townshend added, that Mr. 
Pitt intended to postpone the militia, which was 
the order of the house the next day, to make 
room for his motion. In fine, it was probable, 
that an opposition would be made by the disgusted 
country gentlemen. I represented to Mr. Towns- 
hend the misfortune and weakness of destroying 
a whole system, because Mr. Pitt had been inad- 
vertent and peevish ; I conjured him to allow for 
his ill state of health and hasty temper ; that he 
would pay him a visit the next morning, and use 
all his interest to mollify his ill humours, which 
were gathering. He replied, that he had already 
discoursed with Legge and George Grenville 
upon the subject, yet they seemed afraid to talk 
with Pitt about it, and had referred the task to 
him ; yet he did not see, that it was his affair more 
than theirs, and that he would not undertake a 
thing where he had no chance of success. He 

H 



9* 

protested that this was not the effect of pride in 
himself; that he would run after any man with a 
prospect of serving the public, but in the present 
case the mischief was done, and past his power 
to retrieve. Upon this I rose, took him by the 
hand, and delivered myself thus. " My dear Mr. 
Townshend, I have no further arguments to use, 
but I will not quit this house till you promise to 
follow my advice." To this he most obligingly 
replied, " I promise you I will, merely because 
you insist upon it, though I am still unconvinced, 
and without hopes of doing any thing." This 
accidental interview of mine with Townshend pre- 
vented all the impending mischief. He mollified 
Viner, Nor they, Sir Charles Mordaunt, and the 
other country gentlemen; the next morning, he 
saw Pitt, and w r as one of the members who intro- 
duced him to the house : his long fit of the gout 
and his two relapses, had prevented his taking his 
seat there ever since it was vacated by his ac- 
ceptance of the seals. Mr. Pitt's motion passed 
nem. con. and old Viner himself made him a com- 
pliment on the occasion. It must be said, there 
never was a cheaper Hanoverian bargain, and the 
most palatable too, as it included the interest, at 
least the name, of the idolized King of Prussia ; 
but that merit, so endearing to Mr. Viner and his 
friends, served but to weaken Mr. Pitt still more 
with the court, and its prostitute instruments, the 
two houses of parliament. The King was con- 



99 

vinccd by long experience that any other mini- 
ster would have sacrificed much more to the 
safety of Hanover. The court members had con- 
stantly been lavish of their sneers on Mr. Pitt's 
connection with Tories and Jacobites. Mr. Fox, 
more ably, on the 18th of February, the day of 
Pitt's motion, reminded him of some passages in 
the last sessions, inferring the inconsistency of 
his language then, and now, on the subject of 
continental measures." 



" It must be admitted, that of all the Duke of 
Newcastle's allies Pitt was the most untract- 
able. An instance of his spirit, and the Duke's 
treachery within a month after their union, ap- 
pears by the following letter from Mr. Martin. 
This transaction would have served Mr. Pitt 
greatly in recovering his popularity, yet it was 
never made known to the public. I shall only 
premise, that at this time, the French under 
D'Etrees had entered Hanover, whither the 
Duke of Cumberland had been sent to oppose 
them. 



"Aug. 11,1757. 



" DEAR SIR, 



" Not having had an opportunity of 
seeing you before I left London, I am forced to 

h 2 



100 

write what I have for some days wanted to com- 
municate to you. 

" I desire you would recollect the substance 
of the last note which I sent you from Downing- 
street; it was, that I thought the time at no 
great distance, when my friends would convince 
the public of the uprightness of their intentions. 
The article which I then alluded to, was what I 
had mentioned to you before in conversation ; 
that some parts of the miviistry, pursuing their 
old, well-tried, and approved system, of courting 
Royal favours, would in all probability propose 
to send some of our national troops abroad ; and, 
that this proposition once made, would afford my 
friends the opportunity of manifesting their sin- 
cerity. The event has actually happened, but 
with so little noise, that I question whether the 
report has ever reached your ears ; for which 
reason I resolved to take the trouble of acquaint- 
ing you with the fact. 

" On last Tuesday fortnight, (25th July,) 
when an action was expected hourly between the 
French and Hanoverians, a proposition was laid 
before the Cabinet, to alter the destination of the 
troops then prepared to embark on a secret ex- 
pedition, and use the transports to convey them 
to Germany, in order to support the Duke of 
Cumberland, and recruit his army in case of any 
disaster to his forces, so very inferior to the 



101 

enemy. Mr. Legge being at that time in the 
country, every member in the Cabinet Council 
assented to this proposal except Mr. Pitt alone, 
who desired that the minute of their resolution 
might be entered up with notice of his dissent. 
This firm and spirited proposal so intimidated the 
whole knot of politicians, that not one of the 
gentlemen could pluck up the spirit to support 
his own opinion, being all more apprehensive of 
disgrace by an unpopular measure taken in oppo- 
sition to Mr. Pitt, than eager to recommend 
themselves by adhering to that flattering doctrine: 
in short, the point was waved, and the opinion s 
of the whole company given up, upon the spot, to 
Mr. Pitt. 

" Next, it was considered, who of the com- 
pany should undertake to deliver the account of 
their proceedings, according to custom, to his 
Majesty. Those who had deserted their first te- 
nets, declined the task of committing themselves 
to their master ; and it fell at last on Mr. Pitt to 
be the relator of his own, single, obstinate, offen- 
sive, resistance to all the Cabinet. — He was re- 
proached, when he had acquitted himself of this 
service, with setting himself up as a dictator to 
all the rest of the Ministers.— Complaints were 
uttered by the Sovereign, that he was abandoned 
by his own subjects and kingdom — that as Elector 
of Hanover he ought to be considered by Gi-eat 
Britain in the quality of an ally at least; and it 



102 

would be an infidelity as atrocious to desert him 
in the day of distress, as it had been to abandon 
the grand Confederates in the year 1714: all 
which was imputable to the haughtiness of Mr. 
Pitt prescribing to all the rest of the Cabinet. 

" Mr. Pitt answered, by stating the grounds 
of his opinion, particularly with respect to the 
risque to which his Majesty's kingdoms would be 
exposed by such an insufficient and impotent 
attempt to rescue his Electorate; adding, that 
his Majesty was the master of the Councils of 
State, with authority to pursue such measures 
as he thought proper, whether they were advised 
by his whole Cabinet, or by one individual differ- 
ing from the rest: that he, (Mr. Pitt,) presumed 
not to dictate, but could not help retaining such 
sentiments as appeared to him to be right, without 
presuming to regulate his Majesty's conduct by 
his opinion. 

" ' If my kingdoms will be exposed to danger, 
that is a situation, which, 1 am sure, I do not 
desire to be instrumental in bringing about; and 
whether that be the case or not, you will not fail 
to state the matter in that light to the House of 
Commons.' 

" ' Sir, while I have the honour to continue in 
your service, I shall deliver nothing any where, 
as your Majesty's sentiments, but by your own 
express consent; but, when I declare my own 
sentiments, they will be such as I shall then 



103 

think it my duty to disclose.' — ' Well, then, you 
must do what you please with my fleets, and my 
troops; and, remember, you are answerable for 
the disposition that is taken.' — So much for the 
honour of Mr. Pitt, from whose mouth I had 
these particulars. You must not mention the 
authority for the facts; though I wish I was at 
liberty to empower you to do so. — I shall now 
trouble you with something to my own honour. 
I enclose for your perusal the copy of a letter 
sent by me on Saturday, 30th July, to his Grace 
the Duke of Newcastle, whereby you will see the 
motives on which I have forborne to accept of 
the promotions designed me. I am not only 
pleased with my own conduct, but much de 
lighted with the hopes of approbation from my 
friends. If this be vanity, I consent, that any 
other man may enjoy it on the same terms. Send 
me back the copy of my letter, because I must 
send it to my father, and don't care for the trou- 
ble of transcribing. Your's, &c. 

" Samuel Martin." 

" To the Duke of Newcastle. 

" July 30, \757. 
" MY LORD, 

" Though I have solid reasons to De 
satisfied with the conduct not only of Mr. Legge, 
but likewise of your Grace towards me; yet it 
happens very unfortunately, that I cannot profit 



104 

at present by the good intentions of either. I 
had the honour of a conversation this morning 
with Mr. West, from whom I understood very 
clearly, that Mr. Bannister, the Collector of the 
Customs at Antigua, cannot be made a Commis- 
sioner of the Victualling, (in order to introduce 
my father into his place as Collector,) without 
forcing a place in the Victualling-office by a pen- 
sion upon old Naval Stores :. and that I cannot be 
appointed Paymaster of the Marines, without creat- 
ing the present possessor of that post a supernu- 
merary Commissioner of the Customs; in both 
which articles your Grace is ready to comply for 
the sake of accommodating me, and obliging my 
friends. 

" Since Mr. West left me, I have been consi- 
dering attentively of these arrangements, and find, 
that my two points cannot be attained, but by an 
expense of 1500/. a year to the public ; the pro- 
posed pension upon the old stores being 5001. per 
annum, and the salary of the intended additional 
Commissioner of the Customs being 1000/. more. 
Both sums are to come oat of the purse of the 
people of Great Britain ; the first out of the pro- 
duce of a national fund accountable to Parlia- 
ment; the other out of the revenue of Customs, 
which is to all intents the nation's estate, after 
paying the King's demands towards his Civil 
List, and after paying certain demands to public 
creditors. Now, my Lor<J, if your Grace will 



105 

permit me to deliver my poor sentiments frankly, 
I have always disapproved of this method of load- 
ing the public for the gratification of individuals; 
which seems to me to be peculiarly unfit in a time 
of national distress : and what I have thought 
wrong in the case of others, I should be self-con- 
demned, if I consented to, and became a princi- 
pal party in, for my own private emolument. I 
do not presume to judge your Grace, who is not 
to be tried by my principles, and to whom I am 
beholden for seeking every expedient to serve 
me ; but those principles, such as they are, whe- 
ther sound or whimsical, must govern me. To 
say the truth, I could not hereafter, without shame, 
reflect, that so insignificant a fellow as I am, of 
no particular deserving to the State, should, for 
my own private use, raise a contribution of 1500/. 
a year upon my fellow subjects ; and this at 
a most critical juncture, when every shilling 
that they can pay is wanted for public services. 
I consider likewise, that the world would not fail 
to reproach my friends for suffering me to be 
brought into office to the immediate detriment of 
their country, whose welfare they pretend to have 
at heart, 

" Upon the whole, I must be content to wait, 
till vacancies shall afford your Grace the opportu- 
nity of carrying your designs into execution in 
favour both of my father and myself, proposing 
more satisfaction from this sacrifice, than what 



306" 

would result from any addition to my circum- 
stances, narrow and stinted as they are.* 

" In the mean time, I must acquit your Grace, 
who have done every thing that could be well 
expected in discharge of your engagement with 
relation to me ; and, on the other hand, I hope 
you will do me the justice not to impute to me, 
and my conduct in this affair more whim, caprice, 
affectation, or weakness, than you shall find abso- 
lutely necessary and unavoidable." 

This admirable epistle would have lain buried 
in oblivion, had not I taken a copy, and made the 
author's merit known in despight of his uniform 
insensibility to all circumstances which tended to 
exalt his own character. 

Having now unravelled in some measure the 
secret intrigues of our great men, I proceed to a 
concise relation of our military undertakings, 
which amounted to no more than two unsuccess- 
ful and inglorious expeditions, one against Roch- 
fort, the other against Louisbourg. 

On the 8th of September, Sir Edward Hawke, 
with eighteen ships, besides frigates; and Sir 
John Mordaunt with 8,000 land-forces, set sail 
from Portsmouth The vigour and diligence ex- 
erted in the preparation had revived our national 

* He had no more at that time than an annuity of 3001. 
which his father bought to qualify him for a seat in Parliament. 



107 

enthusiasm and expectation, founded on the se- 
crecy as much as on the force employed in the 
expedition, restored Mr. Pitt to all his popular 
lustre. On the 20th the fleet appeared on the 
coast of France : on the 23d an insignificant fort 
on the Isle of Aix was taken : on the 25th, in a 
Council of War of the principal land and sea offi- 
cers, it was unanimously resolved to make an at- 
tempt at Rochfort. On the 28th, they came to 
a resolution of landing; on the 29th they changed 
their minds; and, on the 1st of October set sail 
for Portsmouth again. This expedition, ended as 
usual, in an Inquiry and a Court Martial. Sir 
John Mordaunt was acquitted. I can venture to 
pronounce, not only from the public evidence, 
but from private and undoubted information, 
which came to my own knowledge, that had our 
troops landed on their first approach, Rochfort 
would have fallen into their hands, and all the 
docks, naval stores, and ships of war in the river 
Charente, been destroyed. 

Mordaunt was the only officer tried ; Hawke 
seems to me little less culpable than he ; mankind 
in general cast the chief blame on General Con- 
way and Admiral Knowles : whether these last 
deserved the imputation of defeating the design 
from mere party considerations, I will leave for 
the present, to be discovered by time. 

At Louisbourg the French garrison was sus- 
pected to be stronger than our army of 10,000 



108 

men, which Lord Loudon reconducted from Hali- 
fax to New York. During his absence, the French 
General, Montcalm, took Fort William Henry. 
Holbourne, who commanded the fleet, the most 
severe of Byng's judges in the interpretation of 
the words, not do his utmost, in the 12th Article 
of War, on the 21st of August, fled with sixteen 
ships of the line from off Louisbourg to Halifax, 
on the French Admiral making a signal, which 
Holbourne understood to unmoor, and give him 
battle. The French fleet consisted of seventeen 
ships of the line, larger in size, it must be allowedi 
than most of Holbourne's ; but, as life knew the 
enemy to be sickly, his flight was the more igno- 
minious. Being afterwards reinforced with four 
fresh capital ships, he returned to his station, and 
staid till his fleet had almost perished in a storm. 
One of the line was wrecked, the rest were dis- 
masted, all were shaken : of the fleet, seven of 
the line were left at Halifax under Lord Colvile ; 
the others arrived at different times in England, 
during the course of December. The French 
squadron returned safe to Brest not long after ; 
but the mortality at Louisbourg, in the passage 
home, and afterwards at Brest, cost them the lives 
of 10,000 seamen at least. These are the material 
British transactions which appeared to merit ob- 
servation in the year 1757. 

[1758.] "On the 18th of January the House 
received a message from the king, implying that 



109 

the padlock was taken off the Hanoverian swords. 
This message, delivered by Mr. Pitt, was to the 
following effect; — That since the 28th of last 
November, the army in his majesty's Electoral 
dominions had again been put into motion, with 
the utmost vigor, against the common enemy, in 
concert with the king of Prussia, &c. — and that his 
Majesty found himself under the absolute neces- 
sity of recommending to the House the speedy con- 
sideration of such a present supply, as might 
enable him, in this critical exigency, to subsist 
and keep together the said army. For this express 
purpose 100,000/. was voted ?iem. con. by the com- 
mittee on the 23d of January. 

1 must do justice to Mr. George Grenville, 
who differed widely from every person in office, 
and in the midst of these transactions was quite 
desponding. Lord Temple, averse to the conti- 
nent at first, yielded at length to the new mea- 
sures ; and went so far, as to entertain warm hopes 
of success. Such too was the general expectation, 
but not a thought of sending a man to Germany. 
All concurred in granting large subsidies, but no 
troops, as they had been taught by Mr. Pitt's own 
declarations, that not a man should set his foot on 
the continent. He persisted so far in this seem- 
ing resolution, that the long delay of the new 
Prussian treaty was altogether owing to his pe- 
remptory refusal of troops. 

This necessarily leads to an explanation of that 



110 

tedious negociation. On the authority of Mr, 
Samuel Martin, I affirm, that Mr. Andrew Mit- 
chell, our minister at the court of Berlin, was re- 
called for having corresponded with Lord Gran- 
ville, and at his suggestion instigated the King of 
Prussia to demand the assistance of British troops,, 
to which, Martin said, Pitt and his friends would 
never consent. Lord Temple and Mr. Legge 
confirmed this to me by charging the requisition 
of troops on some, at home. I was further in- 
formed, particularly by Mr. Martin,* that the King 
of Prussia had originally invested his envoy Mit- 
chell with full powers to sign the treaty on our 
own terms at London, but on the hints given him, 
to insist on troops, had superseded those powers. 
Colonel York was dispatched to take Andrew 
Mitchell's place at Berlin, but was stopped half 
way, as the King of Prussia declared he would not 
part with Mitchell. Mr. Legge was then proposed 

* I have since seen a letter from Mitchell to Holdernesse, of 
the 9th of February, 1758, which acknowledges the receipt of the 
convention} and that the King of Prussia repeatedly refused to 
sign it: disliking the clause of subsidy, and obligation not to make 
peace but by mutual consent; both which are strongly enforced by 
a letter from Holdernesse of the 25th of February. The King of 
Prussia, in lieu of these, insisted on our sending a fleet into the 
Baltic, and a body of national troops into Germany. Mitchell, 
upon the suspicions before alleged, was recalled, but before his de- 
parture, the King of Prussia acquiesced in our terms. This nego- 
tiation was closely followed after the victory of Rosbach ; though 
a correspondence leading to a new treaty might have begun before. 



Ill 

as a kind of ambassador or plenipotentiary to the 
King. This proposition had likewise no effect. 
In fine, after a suspense of many months, the King 
of Prussia rinding Mr. Pitt's refusal of troops in- 
surmountable, sent over a new minister to Lon- 
don, Baron Kynphausen, who jointly with Mit- 
chell, signed the treaty on the 11th of April, by 
which it is agreed, that Great Britain should 
pay " that Monarch the sum of 670,000/. at once, 
and in one whole sum, immediately after the 
exchange of the ratifications being demanded by 
his Prussian majesty," for this, the king of Prus- 
sia stipulated, in the Qd article, that, " He will apply 
the said sum to the maintaining and augmenting 
his forces, which forces shall act in the best man- 
ner for the good of the common cause, and for the 
purpose of reciprocal defence and mutual security 
proposed by their said Majesties." 

'Article 3. Moreover the high contracting 
parties, to wit, his Britannic Majesty, both as King 
and Elector on one side, and on the other, his Prus- 
sian Majesty, engage not to conclude any treaty of 
peace, truce or neutrality, nor any other sort of 
convention or agreement with the powers en- 
gaged in the present war, but in concert, by mu- 
tual agreement, wherein both shall be by name 
comprehended." 

" Let the successes of Great Britain be ever so 
considerable, she is bound by this treaty to make 
no peace with France, without the King of Prussia 



112 

whatever may be his ill fortune in the war with 
Austria, Russia, Sweden, and the Empire; he might 
therefore be well contented with the result of his 
negociation, notwithstanding Mr. Pitt's inflexible 
refusal of troops. To this instance of Mr. Pitt's 
adhering to his frequent declarations, that not a 
man should go to Germany, it will be material in 
this place to add many others. 

First, the reports industriously propagated by 
his friends, while he was yet in office, at the be- 
ginning of last year ; that he caused the Duke of 
Cumberland's application for two battalions to be 
rejected, when that Prince was appointed to com- 
mand the army of observation. Mr. Fox, indeed, 
asserted in the House of Commons, that no appli- 
cation of that sort had ever been made, and was 
not contradicted : yet Mr. Pitt's party thought it 
of consequence, that the public should believe 
that such an application had been made; to con- 
vince the nation of Mr. Pitt's aversion to conti- 
nental measures. 

As a second instance. I must repeat a passage 
from p. *: "On the 19th of May 1757, a de- 
mand of a vote of credit for a million was laid be- 
fore the House : Mr. Pitt on his motion declared, 
that while he was in his Majesty's service, he was 
given to understand, that no further sum would 
be required for the service of the Continent that 
Sessions, than the 200,000/. granted for that pur- 
* This reference is left blank in the MS. Edit. 



11$ 

pose in February last, and proposed an amend- 
ment to the motion. The amendment limited the 
application of the vote of credit to British services 
only, excepting a small portion which he agreed 
might be given to the Hessian troops, under the 
head of forage, in consideration of the scarcity 
and unexpected rise in the price of that article: 
that Great Britain should be no otherwise con- 
cerned upon the Continent, than in keeping the 
Avar alive there in a defensive manner, that her 
offensive efforts should be confined to the sea, and 
North America. 

" The third instance is contained at large, in 
Mr. Martin's letter to me on the 11th of August 
1757, soon after Mr. Pitt M<as restored to his em- 
ployment,*' when he singly opposed the Duke of 
Newcastle and the whole Cabinet Council which 
had agreed to assist the Duke of Cumberland in 
Germany, with the forces then embarked for the 
descent on Rochefort. This proposition was 
quashed by Mr. Pitt, unseconded by any one pre- 
sent, and he was the only member of the Cabinet 
who undertook to relate their proceeding to their 
Master. 

" With such persevering firmness could this 
minister act at a period, when the British Parlia- 
ment had bound itself by repeated addresses to 

* See this letter page QQ 
I 



in 

defend the King's Electoral dominions ; yet, when 
the Electorate had absolved these kingdoms from 
that obligation, and by a convention of its own, 
without any British interposition, had detached 
itself both from Great Britain and Prussia; this 
very minister, abusing the confidence of a credu- 
lous people, plunged them into an expence of 
blood and treasure unknown to former experience ; 
and beyond the designs, even the ideas, of the 
most corrupt and daring, whom he had so fre- 
quently and recently confronted upon the subject 
of Continental Systems. He was the man on 
whom the public once depended as a check to 
such ruinous attempts : he was the man who 
sacrificed that public, for the precarious favour of 
an insincere unforgiving old man, tottering on the 
verge of the grave. Troops could be held from 
the Duke of Cumberland : his success would be 
strength to Fox. A proposition from the Duke of 
Newcastle would be opposed for that purpose ; 
Newcastle would have had all the merit; and he 
will have it; and my prophecy to Mr. Pitt in 
these words be verified, "Then shall I be grieved 
to see you, the first man in Great Britain, at this 
juncture, become a subaltern to the lowest." 



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